ABSTRACT

After the evacuation of the Gush Katif settlement and intensifying with the 2008–2009 Israeli War on Gaza, the border town of Sderot and its surrounding landscape became, for American Christian Zionists, a pilgrimage landscape and therefore a sacred space as it was performed as an event site portending the apocalypse. Christian Zionists interpreted the war and the landscape it took place on as a mise-en-scène of hope: the hollowing out of Gaza in anticipation of Christ’s return. Christian Zionists read the future as history. To explain this, I employ Philip K. Dick’s conceptualization of ‘orthogonal time’. Time and space merge as always already existing prophetic kairos time manifests itself in prophetic space. Watching Operation Cast Lead from pilgrimage landscapes overlooking the Gaza Strip, I conducted a yearlong ethnography before/during/after the 2008/09 war on Gaza with American Christian Zionists. They justified the war through colonial imaginings of terra nullius in three ways: 1) by denying that Palestinians exist as a legitimate national identity; 2) by denying the Palestinians’ ability to reason; and 3) prophetic inevitability. Gaza is therefore interpreted as God’s land and the demise of Gazans – present and future – is not only anticipated and preempted, but will have (already) happened.

摘要

在 Gush Katif 定居点撤离并随着 2008 年至 2009 年以色列对加沙的战争加剧后，边境城镇斯德罗特及其周边景观成为美国基督教犹太复国主义者的朝圣景观，因此是一个神圣的空间，因为它被用作事件现场预示着天启。基督教犹太复国主义的解释战争和景观也发生在作为濑恩现场盼望：加沙空心化以期盼基督再来。基督教犹太复国主义者将未来视为历史。为了解释这一点，我采用了 Philip K. Dick 对“正交时间”的概念化。时间和空间融合，因为总是已经存在的预言 kairos 时间在预言空间中显现出来。在俯瞰加沙地带的朝圣景观中观看铸铅行动，我在 2008/09 年加沙战争之前/期间/之后与美国基督教犹太复国主义者进行了为期一年的民族志研究。他们通过对无主之地的殖民想象来为战争辩护以三种方式：1) 否认巴勒斯坦人作为合法的民族身份存在；2）否认巴勒斯坦人的推理能力；3) 预言的必然性。因此，加沙被解释为上帝的土地，加沙人的灭亡——现在和未来——不仅是预期和先发制人的，而且将（已经）发生。