ABSTRACT
The myriad ways in which public and private security providers perform the state and partake in a statecraft production of sovereignty is the focus of this chapter, which explores the practices employed by public security actors and private security companies at the City of David/Wadi Hilweh national park in East Jerusalem. In this chapter I propose that the security provision in these spaces is not limited to the protection of the national parks’ personnel, property and visitors, but is rather aimed at the performance of Israeli sovereignty in an occupied territory. Through an examination of a national park embroiled in national and ethnic contestation, I posit that daily practices employed by security agents contribute to the effort of crafting the state and reconfiguring its relations with different residents of the region. I argue that these different practices include ‘showing presence’, reassuring some residents while intimidating others and the deliberate enhancement of friction between security agents and local residents.
