Borderlands Lecture -­‐ Middle East Working Group Reshaping the Meaning of Borders: Separate and Unequal in Israel/Palestine Oren Yiftachel Professor of Geography Lloyd Hurst Family Chair in Urban Studies Ben-­‐Gurion University Wednesday, 11 February, 2:30-­‐4:30 pm Villa Malafrasca seminar room Organised by Prof Raffaella A. Del Sarto The lecture will deal with the making of the Israeli 'ethnocracy' and one of its main features -­‐ the dynamic imposition of borders and boundaries through political, legal, spatial and identity regimes. It will argue that the multiplicity of boundaries reflect the inherent tensions between the Jewish colonization of Palestine and the liberalization and democratization of Jewish society, putting in train a process of 'creeping apartheid'. The lecture will focus on current consequences of the bordering regime, such as the 'gray spacing' of Palestinian-­‐Arab groups, and the development of 'defensive citizenship' among marginalized (mainly Mizrahi) Jews. The lecture will demonstrate that Israel/Palestine is a hub of 'border work' which may not represent an exception, but rather 'order of things to come' in the management of mixed spaces during the 21st Century.