Paper short abstract:

I analyze the treatment of Syrian casualties in Israel, and the governmental order established in new boundary spaces, in which the circulation of technology, language, people, and professions takes place. Security is activated through designated boundary spaces, rather than the controlling borders.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I discuss the security of borders and boundaries by analyzing the case of medical treatment provided to Syrian casualties in Israel. Though Israel and Syria regard each other as enemy states, over the past few years Israel has provided medical assistance to Syrian casualties from the ongoing civil war in Syria in a humanitarian operation authorized by an official governmental decision. This treatment has been given in different sites: (1) military field hospitals (near the border); (2) military bases transformed into medical and humanitarian aid facilities; and (3) civilian hospitals in which both medical and security teams operate.

Drawing on the concepts of boundary work and the boundary object, I argue that these new security-humanitarian spaces function as boundary objects. They enable the work of both enemies and allies, medicine and the military, as well as the crossing of borders and the blurring of boundaries between them.

In these spaces, military and medical authorities together establish a new governmental order in which the circulation of technology (advanced medical treatment), language (Arabic and Hebrew), people (enemies and allies) and professions (military and medicine) takes place. Accordingly, the governance of security is produced not only by managing the (official territorial) border and controlling the movement of people in and out of the country, but also by enabling movement across the conceptual boundaries of people and professions, through designated boundary spaces