ABSTRACT
This chapter describes strategies employed by Israel government officials to create geographies that present Palestinian cities as opaque and alien spaces. Through an analysis of the ongoing construction of the wall that separates Palestinian enclaves, in conjunction with settlement strategies and territorial appropriation, it demonstrates that urban planning and architectural design, in conjunction with securitization strategies predicated on a "state of emergency" are very powerful tools for "conducting war by other means". Using a complex legal bureaucratic system, Israel has set aside about one-half of the West Bank for settlements, including dwellings and related buildings as well as reserve land for their expansion. This result has mostly been achieved by issuing military requisition orders or declaring specified parcels "state land". At the end of 2008, the West Bank contained 121 settlements the Israeli Interior Ministry recognized as "communities", even though some of them included stretches of land on which the developed area was not contiguous.
