The politics of time: Political entropy, settler colonialism and urban ruination in Hebron / Al-Khalil, Palestine

• Published in: Political geography Vol. 111; p. 103093
• Main Authors: Handel, Ariel, Ram, Mori, Mustafa, Hadeel, Monterescu, Daniel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-05-2024
• ISSN: 0962-6298; 1873-5096
• DOI: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2024.103093

This paper explores the relationships between settler colonialism and temporal regimes of urban ruination in the Palestinian city of Hebron/Al-Khalil. The city is divided into two sectors: H1, controlled by the Palestinian National Authority, and H2, roughly 20% of the city, including 33,000 Palestinians and 700 Jewish settlers, living under direct Israeli military occupation. Drawing on fieldwork in H2, we identify several temporal formations shaping H2: the settler-messianic time that spatializes the past as a platform to facilitate colonial expansion; contemporary military control that seeks to destabilize Palestinian homes, their everyday lives and ontological security in the present; and the Palestinian effort to recalibrate the rhythm of elimination and recover the future. The paper develops the concept of political entropy: a temporal technology of control that builds on the process of natural decay. Israel uses the power of time and entropy to let Palestinian assets decay slowly while prohibiting proper renovation and maintenance. The mundane violence of political entropy tends to remain unseen, as the harm is done slowly, allegedly naturally. Facing the settler colonial temporalities that maintain a state of undecidedness, where deferral itself becomes a weapon which lets entropy operate without interruption, Hebron's Palestinian inhabitants aim at slowing down the effects of time by applying friction to the process of ruination, as well as by their insistence on futurability. By identifying the temporalities trapping the city's Palestinian population, our paper thus frames Hebron's H2 as space that is simultaneously ruined and reclaimed.