Open AccessWhy Wall? A Kleinian Reading of the Israeli-Palestinian Resistance to Politics
Author(s) -
Maya Mukamel
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
konturen
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1947-3796
DOI - 10.5399/uo/konturen.4.0.2961
Subject(s) - adversary , politics , resistance (ecology) , trace (psycholinguistics) , morality , reading (process) , power (physics) , government (linguistics) , face (sociological concept) , property (philosophy) , sociology , political science , law , political economy , epistemology , computer security , philosophy , social science , ecology , linguistics , physics , quantum mechanics , computer science , biology
The present work explores the separation barriers built by the Israeli government and military as products and producers of asymmetries of power between Israelis and Palestinians; and, at the same time, as products and producers of discourses that are characterized by the naturalization of evil. In such discourses, evil is singularized as a unique cultural property of the national adversary; violence and aggression on the part of the adversary are perceived as a sign of a primitive morality, detached from political and historical circumstances; and violence of each party is justified as a defensive war on the “evil” other. A return to Melanie Klein allows to trace these dynamics, and to raise fundamental questions on the role of the cultural analyst.