Borderoad as a segmented whole: Biographies,recent histories,and time-space conjunctions of Israel's Highway 90

Abstract

The article delves into the current history, space, and landscape of Highway 90, Israel's longest highway. Spanning the entire country, the highway aligns with Israel's eastern border, while traversing the contested territories of the West Bank. The inquiry addresses Highway 90 as a borderoad, exploring its biography in the geopolitical historical context through five conceptual forms of segmentation that highlight temporal-spatial intricacies and key aspects of the route: regional segmentation, geopolitical segmentation, elusive northwest Dead Sea segmentation, historical-synchronic segmentation, and a synthesis introduced as the borderoad landscape segmentation. The analysis reveals that segmentation operates not only as a methodological tool, but also emerges as the road's main characteristic, introducing the borderoad as a segmented whole that serves to enhance the nexus of nation, territory, and border. The discussion pertains to historical–geopolitical conflicts, highlighting the route's hybrid military–civilian characteristics. It addresses the border as a meta-narrative, while reflecting the conjunction of time-space within the geopolitical context.