Degradation of urban nodes in East Jerusalem: from vibrant spaces to dead ends

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article explores the impact of Israeli policies and practices on Palestinian urban nodes in occupied East Jerusalem focusing on Kubsa junction. It argues that the Segregation Wall has created spaces where Palestinian life is expendable and where the practice of eliminating the Arab Palestinian character of the city has transformed a once vibrant Palestinian urban node into a dead end. Kubsa Junction illustrates settler-colonial military spatial policies and urban planning to control the urban space of Kubsa Junction which have created a ‘frame’ to segregate and control the colonized Palestinians. Such policies, the article argues, are better interpreted by settler-colonial state strategies than racialized global capitalism. Yet, while different layers of daily lives and memory of the colonized on both sides of the Segregation Wall have been harmed, the spiritual and collective memory layers maintain meaning and purpose to the colonized’s steadfastness or Sumoud.