1 Organization of Operation of Checkpoints in Judea and Samaria

Operation of checkpoints was one of the most common activities of the IDF during the period of Operation Ebb and Flow. In its physical and social aspect, the checkpoint is a buffer zone that separates the Palestinian and Israeli areas, between Israelis and Arabs, and between those who are authorized to pass and those who are not authorized to pass between these spaces. Thus, the checkpoint is an area where two worlds meet: different nationalistic, social and cultural worlds, and it is a hybrid area. One of the principal checkpoints operating in the Judea and Samaria region is the Kalandia checkpoint. This article is based upon ethnographic field job – primarily observations and interviews – and attempts to learn how the Kalandia checkpoint operates and which social dynamics characterize it. This article places the integration between the soldier and the Palestinian citizen at the focus of the social dynamics. This article takes note of the dysfunction of the checkpoint, expressed by the hostility of the soldiers towards the Palestinian citizens. This article describes how the checkpoint creates a process of blurring the image of the citizen passing through it, a process called “depersonalization ” in this article. The continuous operation of the checkpoint is accompanied by many regulations, processes, and instructions that, in the final analysis, create a