ALEX SHAMS /// Five Fragments of the Apartheid Landscape in Palestine

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This second conversation with Alex Shams is entirely dedicated to the context in which it was recorded, Palestine. Through five significant fragments, we attempt to describe a non-exhaustive account of the Apartheid landscape created by the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The first fragment consists in the segregated roads, in particular the viaduct and tunnel of the Israeli settlement of Gilo, nearby the place of this conversation. The second and third fragments are the Palestinian villages of Nabi Samuel and Al Walaja that both became enclaves, surrounded by the apartheid wall built by the State of Israel. The fourth fragment describes the particular situation of Hebron where all the issues of the occupation seems to be condensed into a relatively small urban space. The final fragment can be found outside of the West Bank, in the Negev, where the bedouins have to lead a daily fight to exist.

Alex Shams is an Iranian-American journalist based in the West Bank. He is a co-editor-in-chief of Ajam Media Collective (ajammc.com), a blog focused on society and culture in Iran and Central Asia. He also works for Ma’an News, the largest Palestinian news agency. See his Funambulist contributor page.

CONTRIBUTION TO THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE:
– “Political Walks: Tehran: Rise and Fall of the City’s Premier Nightclub Strip,” in The Funambulist 7 (Sept-Oct 2016) Health Struggles.

REFERENCE WEBSITES:

– http://ajammc.com/
– http://www.maannews.net/eng/

REFERENCE ARTICLES:

– Haggai Matar, “A Village Turned Prison,” on 972mag.com (May 12, 2012)
– Alex Shams, “Palestinian village imprisoned in holy shrine of Nabi Samuel,” on Maan News (February 12, 2015)
– Alex Shams, “In Hebron, Palestinian women face down daily settler home invasions,” on Maan News (November 26, 2014)
– Alex Shams, “After police killings, anger simmers in Negev Bedouin villages,” on Maan News (January 22, 2015

ASSOCIATED CONVERSATIONS ON ARCHIPELAGO:

– “Monitoring the Occupation: The Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” with Dror Etkes (February 11, 2015)
– “Gender Politics in the Iranian Public Space,” with Alex Shams (December 15, 2014)

ASSOCIATED ARTICLE ON THE FUNAMBULIST:

– “Hebron: Occupied Palestine at the Scale of a City” (March 3, 2015)

REFERENCE DOCUMENTS: 

Viaduct and tunnel of Gilo Settlement / Photograph by Léopold Lambert on the day of the conversation:

Gilo Viaduct Photo By Leopold Lambert Situation Map of Nabi Samuel / UN Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs:

Nabi Samuel Situation Map of Al Walaja and Gilo / Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs:

Al Walaja  Map of Hebron by Léopold Lambert for The Funambulist (February 2015) Download the map in high resolution (14 MB) and its close-up (2.1MB) (license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-ShareAlike 4.0):