Political Geography 93 (2022) 102526

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Political Geography
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/polgeo

Full Length Article

Passing as a tourist: Exploring the everyday urban geopolitics of tourism

Marik Shtern
Postdoctoral Fellow, The Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Department of Geography, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This paper presents a case study of territorial boundary transgression and intergroup encounters mediated by
Tourism geopolitics tourism in a volatile and contested urban space. I present the notion of ‘passing as a tourist’ as a prism to
Performative tourism investigate the nexus between performative tourism and everyday urban geopolitics. Situated in East Jerusalem’s
Urban geopolitics
core geographies of colonization and political violence, this paper uses archival news material and a textual
Contested cities
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
analysis of primary questionnaire data to critically examine how Jewish Israeli Jerusalemites visiting the Muslim
Jerusalem Quarter in the Old City negotiate encounters in a conflicted space. The study reveals how the performative di­
mensions of ‘tourism’ in a context of polarized ethnonational division expose the role of embodied, everyday
geopolitics in the production of urban spaces of tourism.

1. Introduction
There is arguably no better exemplar of the constitutive relations
between urban geopolitics and tourism than Israel/Palestine. Since
1967, the Israeli government has leveraged domestic and international
tourism in the region to rebrand and normalize the state (Brin, 2006;
Gelbman, 2008; Isaac, Michael & Higgins-Desbiolles, 2015). A notable
example of this process is the ‘pink-washing’ of Tel-Aviv as a
gay-friendly urban utopia, which serves to reframe Israel’s international
image as a liberal country (Ram et al., 2019; Ritchie, 2015; Schulman,
2011). Another prominent instance is the contested tourist development
in Silwan, East Jerusalem. South of Jerusalem’s Old City, in the Pales­
tinian village of Silwan, the powerful, quasi-governmental Ir-David
Foundation (El’ad) has established a massive tourism destination
combining Zionist archeology with aggressive settler colonialism (Noy,
2013). This site, among others in Israel/Palestine, highlights the role of
politically oriented tourism as an important visitor draw, shaping both
Zionist and Palestinian political meta-narratives. Tourists’ positioning
within this context varies according to these visitors’ political ori­
entations—from neutral observers of geopolitical dynamics to active
partisans (Brin, 2006).
Notwithstanding discussion of the top-down institutional utilization
of tourism for the sake of geopolitical claim-making, the actual,
everyday manifestations of tourism geopolitics in Israel/Palestine have
not been thoroughly investigated. This paper addresses this lacuna by
interrogating the spatial practices of localized Jewish-Israeli tourism in
the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. In the last two decades,
the Muslim Quarter has become an epicenter of Israeli colonization and
Palestinian resistance (Dumper, 2002, Isaac et al, 2015; Rokem, Weiss &
Midownik, 2018). Many Jewish Israelis ceased visiting the area
(Jabareen et al., 2019; Romann & Weingrod, 1991), fearing hostility and
physical harm. Yet some Jewish-Israeli Jerusalemites remain attracted
to the orientalist allure of East Jerusalem’s Arab cityscapes and tradi­
tional market fare. This paper explores the ways in which these visitors
navigate this contested territory in light of the perceived risk of (phys­
ical) political violence, as well as their conflicted positionality as
Jewish-Israeli residents of Jerusalem within Palestinian spaces of the
Old City.
To encapsulate the ways in which Israeli visitors access and navigate
occupied Palestinian touristic localities, I suggest the concept of ‘passing
as a tourist.’ The notion of ‘passing’ has typically been applied with
reference to marginalized groups navigating spaces of socioeconomic
and racial exclusion (Ginsberg, 1996, pp. 1–18; Piper, 1992; Kawash,
1996). While cognizant of the hardships imposed upon Palestinians
trying to move throughout Jerusalem (Greenber-Raanan & Avni, 2020),
in this case study, I focus on the spatio-performative practices that
enable Jewish Israelis to experience a sense of legitimacy and security
when visiting historical and culinary destinations in the Muslim Quarter.
The right to pass as a tourist, in this asymmetric political context, is a
privilege, but also a sign of weakness. When local residents intentionally
embody the social category of tourist in order to establish a sense of
safety and belonging within parts of their city, it indicates an essential
foreignness within this arena. Within complex spatial dialectics of in­
clusion and exclusion, the tourist performance emerges as a mediating
space of encounter between colonizer and colonized, between insider
and outsider, between communities simultaneously contesting and

E-mail address: marik.shtern@mail.huji.ac.il.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102526
Received 30 April 2020; Received in revised form 9 August 2021; Accepted 15 October 2021
Available online 21 October 2021
0962-6298/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M. Shtern
cohabiting the urban space.
This paper is based on a discourse analysis of Jewish residents of
Jerusalem, supplemented with archival news media relating to Israeli
tourism in the Old City since 1967. In light of the risk of political
violence they perceive, I aim to understand why and under what cir­
cumstances Jewish-Israeli Jerusalemites visit the Muslim Quarter of the
Old City. This understanding is essential not only to a contemporary
interpretation of Jerusalem’s everyday political geography (Green­
berg-Raanan & Avni, 2020; Jabareen et al., 2019; Rokem & Vaughan,
2018; Shtern, 2010, 2016, 2019), but also to broader discussions on
tourism and urban geopolitics (Lisele, 2013; Massé & Lunstrum, 2016;
Mostafanezhad & Norum, 2016). The present case highlights these
conceptual intersections through a micro-level examination of urban
touristic performance. Beyond leisure and the discovery of extraordi­
nary cultural experiences (Urry, 2002), visitation of East Jerusalem by
members of the Israeli hegemony comprises an embodied negotiation of
urban rights and inter-group relations.
This paper is divided thematically into three main sections. In the
following section, I present the conceptual framework of the
research—the junction between performative tourism and urban
geopolitics, and the notion of ‘passing as a tourist’—informed by a re­
view of recent literature on the geopolitics of tourism in the region. In
the second section, I present the case of Jewish-Israeli tourism in the
Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, including a historical re­
view of Israeli tourism in the Old City since 1967 and a brief summary of
the contemporary geopolitics of Jerusalem. I also explicate my research
methodology, and present and analyze my findings. In the third and final
section, I discuss the practices and semiotics of ‘passing as a tourist’ with
respect to the everyday geopolitics of tourism.
1.1. Urban geopolitics and performative tourism
As defined by Yacobi (2009), geopolitics provides an analytical
framework for studying the production of urban space that challenges
traditional distinctions between domestic and international affairs in
political geography by “referring to the politics of fear, (in)security
discourse, and the production of space as important factors that must be
integrated into the study of geopolitics in general and urban geopolitics
in particular” (p. 576). While earlier research on urban geopolitics
focused on the intersection between large-scale political violence and
urban space (Fergonese, 2012; Graham, 2004; Weizman & Misselwitz,
2003), recent studies have shifted focus to analyze urban events in their
micro-scale contexts (Rokem & Vaughan, 2018). Fregonese (2012)
proposed an exploration of everyday urban geopolitics that refocuses
attention away from top-down public planning and policymaking to­
ward the ordinary spaces not explicitly associated with con­
flict—including banal spaces of leisure, recreation and tourism—which
are nonetheless integral to the everyday geographies of conflict.
In this light, the study of tourism geopolitics emerged as contem­
porary urban landscapes of tourism increasingly fused with spaces of
militarization, terror and fear (Bianchi, 2006; Hall, 2017; Lisele, 2013;
Massé & Lunstrum, 2016; Rowen, 2016). As Mostafanezhad and Norum
(2016) suggest, a constitutive relationship exists between the practices
of tourism and geopolitical imaginaries; beyond ‘ordinary’ classifica­
tions of touristic destinations such as ‘exotic’ and ‘luxurious,’ repre­
sentations of place and experience are also processed into geopolitical
categories like ‘safe’ and ‘dangerous’ (Pain, 2009).
Tourism can also serve as a political tool for state territorialization in
contested geographies. In his study of state-sponsored Chinese tourism
in Taiwan, Rowen (2014) demonstrated how the encounter between
mainland Chinese tourists and their hosts in Taiwan serves to produce
contradictory and politically charged exchanges, evoking feelings of
admiration (of tourists) and hostility (among hosts). In such cases, the
tourism encounter becomes a geopolitical one, in which the tourist
experience reflects and shapes power relations at local and national
scales (Gillen & Mostafanezhad, 2019).
2
Political Geography 93 (2022) 102526
This paper investigates the juxtaposition of everyday urban geopol­
itics and tourism. It articulates the dialectical relations between fear and
attraction that produce tourist landscapes in contested urban spaces and
explores the performative dimensions of the geopolitics of tourism. The
study of performative tourism (Edensor, 2000; Coleman & Crang, 2002;
Knudsen & Waade, 2010) illuminates the ways in which tourists and
tourism workers perform ‘frontstage’ roles (Goffman, 1978) that convey
particular meanings and values set by a specific social context. Tourism
workers, for example, including guides, drivers and porters, may be
expected to wear uniforms and other markers harmonized with themed
environments (Crang, 1997). On the other hand, tourists themselves are
key players in the staged nature of tourism. The ways in which tourists
choose destinations, view sights, interact with locals and other tourists
and interpret their experiences, are all encoded with social performance.
These performances draw normativity from the originating culture and
historical relationships between people and the places visited (Edensor,
2000). As such, the performative aspects of tourism serve to reproduce
distinctions of class, gender and other political relations (Jordan, 2008).
Thematically salient to the tourist experience is the dialectic between
the tourist ‘self’ and native ‘other.’ Urry (2002) distinguishes two types
of the tourist gaze: the ‘mass’ and the ‘romantic.’ The ‘mass’ gaze seeks
to expand the tourist’s home social context into the tourist site, while the
‘romantic’ gaze seeks novel contact uniquely framed within the travel
destination. The romantic tourist seeks a sense of belonging in a foreign
land—some do it by avoiding spaces of mass tourism, seeking ‘un­
touched’ localities (Cary, 2004). Yet as noted by Coleman and Crang
(2002), the search for genuine contact with native spaces and people is
paradoxical, because “the tourist activity bears with it the ironic seeds of
its own destruction. As the very presence of the tourist corrupts the idea
of reaching an authentic and totally different culture” (p. 3). Moreover,
the tourist’s expectation of a self-transforming encounter with the native
is likewise futile; the encounter is built upon a tourist imaginary—a false
orientalist projection of (Western) consciousness (Bruner, 1991).
As noted by Wilson (2017), tourist encounters have become a critical
site for examining the exercise of power, as they embody the historical
narratives of Western exploration and exploitation of the non-Western
world, “in ways that continue to shape global politics, geographical
imaginations and bodily encounters” (453). This assertion of unequal
encounter with difference is notably accentuated in urban spaces of
geopolitical conflict. Encounters never take place in a space free from
history, material conditions, and power (Valentine, 2008: 333). Urban
geographies of encounter can be civil, convivial and even positive
(Wilson, 2011), but they are always embedded within unequal power
relations, prejudice and antagonist intergroup dispositions (Valentine,
2008). Structural forces, such as ethno-nationalism and neoliberalism,
frame and produce such encounters, contextualizing them within solid
socio-political asymmetries, and in many ways (though not always)
determine their outcome and effects (Shtern & Rokem, 2021).
A notable example of tourism encounters in Israel/Palestine is na­
tional cuisine. Several studies have examined the complex role of culi­
nary tourism in articulating Jewish-Arab relations in Israel (Amram,
2019; Gvion et al., 2012; Hirsch, 2011; Ranta & Mendel, 2014; Ranta,
2015). As Ranta and Mendel (2014) demonstrated, Palestinian-Arab
cuisine has been a focus of romanticization, localization, imitation and
appropriation. Indigenous dishes such as falafel, hummus and pita have
been ‘de-Arabized’ for incorporation as ‘original,’ ‘authentic’ elements
of Israel’s own national cuisine (Ariel, 2012). In recent decades, how­
ever, Palestinian cuisine has been increasingly acknowledged, reviewed
and celebrated by Israeli food critics (Ranta, 2015). For example, Jewish
Israelis tend to consider Palestinian-Arab hummus to be tastier, of better
quality and, most importantly, more authentic than Israeli versions of
this dish (Hirsch, 2011). Yet, the rise of Palestinian culinary tourism
among Jewish Israelis indicates not only shifting gastronomical
druthers, but a deeper political significance. The consumption of food
marketed as belonging to the other can reflect a “willingness to consider
and identify the Palestinian-Arab other in themselves […] at least with
M. Shtern
respect to their food culture” (Ranta, 2015: 622).1
Notwithstanding the rich corpus on tourism geopolitics worldwide
and in Israel/Palestine in particular, the practical meaning of the nexus
between urban geopolitics and tourism demands further articulation
and conceptualization. How does the tourist explore and experience
politically contested and volatile spaces? What are the performative
aspects of such spatial engagement? How does the urbanity of spaces of
tourism inform the praxis of tourists?
To address these questions, I utilize the notion of ‘passing as a
tourist.’ The practice of ‘passing’ is associated with a person’s ability to
be regarded as belonging to an identity group or social category different
than their own. It is utilized by individuals for the purpose of self-
preservation in instances where expressing one’s established identity
is perceived as dangerous (Leach, 2002, pp. 281–298). Most scholarly
work in this vein has emphasized the practice of ‘passing as white’ by
Indigenous and minority groups within racialized colonial and
post-colonial contexts (see Kawash, 1996; Piper, 1992). However, I
suggest that ‘passing’ also provides a useful analytical prism to under­
stand two dimensions of the everyday geopolitics of tourism. First, as a
spatial practice, ‘passing’ describes the territorial performances of
tourists as they move through contested and volatile spaces. Engaging in
an ongoing and dynamic process of boundary-making and boundary
transgressing, the role of the passing tourist is continuously negotiated
against shifting native landscapes of inclusion and exclusion. Second, as
an embodied performance, the passing tourist identity may be adopted
by domestic visitors as a costume that safeguards against perceived
physical risk. Simply, in a touristic setting imbued with political, ethnic
or national conflict, the particular physical attire and bodily perfor­
mances of the tourist can endow the outsider with a conditional legiti­
macy in the territory of the ‘other.’ As a spatial practice and embodied
performance, ‘passing as a tourist’ therefore comprises a useful con­
ceptual framework at the nexus between everyday geopolitics and
tourism.
1.2. Passing as a tourist in Jerusalem
Urban political geographers have long studied Jerusalem as a para­
digmatic bi-nationally contested city (Bollens, 2018; Shtern & Bollens,
2021; Shlay & Rosen, 2010). As such, Jerusalem has been prone to pe­
riodic political violence (e.g., the Intifada,2 1987–1990; the 2nd Intifada,
2000–2004; Jerusalem Intifada, 2014–2015), in which cyclical Pales­
tinian terrorism and Israeli state violence have left thousands of casu­
alties amid stark geographies of fear and segregation (Cohen, 2013). Yet,
intergroup collision in Jerusalem has always unfolded within the
context of disparate power relations. Since the Israeli occupation and
annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967, the official Israeli national and
municipal planning and development policies for East Jerusalem and its
Palestinian residents have engrained deep structural inequalities. Insti­
tutional discrimination in budget allocations and other investments
have left the Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem acutely
disadvantaged in almost all spheres of life, particularly with respect to
infrastructure, housing and education (UNCTAD, 2013). Moreover,
Israelis and Palestinians have fundamentally disparate civic status­
es—Jews bear Israeli citizenship, while the vast majority of Jerusalem’s
Palestinians are permanent residents only (Shtern, 2019).
The de-facto collapse of the Oslo Peace Accords and the outbreak of
the 2nd Intifada represented a dramatic geopolitical shift. Israel’s sub­
sequent construction of a ‘separation barrier’ (2002–2007)—a
meandering infrastructure of clearways, concrete and fencing—entailed
1
Emphasis in the original.
2
Intifada is the Arabic word commonly used in reference to two large-scale
Palestinian uprisings. The 2nd Intifada, in which more than 1100 Israelis and
3000 Palestinians were killed, erupted in September 2000 and continued until
around 2004.
3
Political Geography 93 (2022) 102526
the near total physical separation of East Jerusalem from the rest of the
West Bank (see Fig. 1).3 This separation critically impacted East Jer­
usalem’s functional and economic viability as an Arab regional metro­
politan center (Chiodelli, 2016; Shtern, 2019). Studies have examined
the political, economic and spatial transformations of Jerusalem in the
post-Oslo era (see, for example, Shtern, 2019; Bollens, 2018; Calame &
Charlesworth, 2011; Rokem & Vaughan, 2018). Recent research has
emphasized the increased colonization and resulting deprivation of
Palestinian Jerusalem (see Chiodelli, 2016; Shlomo, 2016), as well as
growing Palestinian spatial integration and daily usage of West Jer­
usalem’s public spaces and infrastructure (Shtern, 2016, 2019; Shtern &
Yacobi, 2019). In this context, Fenster (2005) and Greenberg-Raanan
and Avni (2020) observed the gendered aspect of boundary trans­
gressions in Jerusalem reflected in the attire of Jewish and Arab women
dwelling in outgroup territories. Research has not, however, explored
the everyday boundary-crossing practiced by Jewish-Israeli civilians in
Palestinian East Jerusalem.
1.2.1. Methods, questionnaire and researcher positionality
This study is based on a critical thematic analysis of questionnaire
responses among Jewish-Israeli residents of Jerusalem who visited the
Muslim Quarter between January and June 2019.4 The data informs a
larger study of geographies of encounter between Israelis and Pales­
tinians in Jerusalem. The survey was distributed online through social
media and via the email lists of local Jewish community-groups. Textual
analysis of the survey data entailed inductive thematic coding of survey
responses (Charmaz & McMullen, 2011), followed by a triangulation
and broader contextualization of identified themes via textual analysis
of archival print media concerning Israeli tourism in the Muslim
Quarter.
While tourism to Jerusalem is relatively common among Jewish
Israelis from other cities, the focus here on residents of Jerusalem aims
to illuminate the choice to act as tourists in their ‘own’ city. More
importantly, as residents of Jerusalem, they frame their experiences as
visitors to the Muslim Quarter not only with respect to religion, na­
tionality and culture, but with reference to their local urban identity. As
Jerusalemites, they are able to visit the Muslim Quarter more often and,
ostensibly, to develop more intimate connections with its people and
places.
In total, 89 respondents answered four open-ended questions: (1)
What is the motivation behind your visit(s)? (2) How do you feel when you
are in the Muslim Quarter? (3) How would you characterize the attitude of
local Palestinians towards you? and (4) What makes you feel secure during
your visit(s)? Respondents included 51 women and 38 men between the
ages of 22 and 64 years. A majority (68%) of respondents self-identified
as secular Jews, alongside 21% who identified as ‘traditional,’ 9% as
‘religious’ and 1% as Haredi (i.e., ultra-Orthodox). 78% of respondents
identified their political orientation as ‘left-wing,’ 15% as ‘center’ and
8% as ‘right-wing.’ Thus while responses were analyzed with an eye to
various viewpoints among participants, the survey sample strongly
favored a secular, liberal socio-political orientation.
While composition of the sample may have been impacted by the
methods of distribution, the sample is likely to be representative of
Jewish-Israeli resident-tourists in this part of the city. This assertion is
supported by two factors. First, Jewish Halachic dietary law forbids the
consumption of much Muslim-Palestinian cuisine, and religious/social
restrictions limit the willingness of Orthodox-observant Jews to visit
predominantly Palestinian spaces (notwithstanding transit en route
3
A limited number of Palestinian suburbs, including Kafr ‘Aqeb and the
Shu’afat refugee camp, were left isolated East of the wall as Israeli-controlled
envclaves.
4
The survey was distributed through the author’s personal email lists and
social media channels, calling for Jewish residents of Jerusalem who occa­
sionally visit the Muslim quarter to share their experiences.
M. Shtern
Fig. 1. Greater Jerusalem 2019 (Ir-Amim).
elsewhere). Second, there is high empirical congruence between religi­
osity and political identity among Jewish Israelis, with most secular
Jews oriented to the left and religious Jews to the right)Wald & Marti­
nez, 2001). With these factors in mind, the study draws qualified con­
clusions regarding identified themes of fear, attraction and belonging in
the city. In addition, the study also includes a textual analysis of Israeli
news reports on Israeli tourism in the Muslim Quarter, drawing from
center left Israeli news outlets including Haaretz, The Marker and Mako.
The analysis shines light upon Israeli media discourse concerning
tourism in this politically contested space.
Last, as a Jewish-Israeli resident of Jerusalem and frequent visitor to
the Muslim Quarter and other Palestinian neighborhoods of the city, I
acknowledge the importance of my own positionality in the context of
this study. In many ways, the study arises from my reflections on my
own experiences during such visits. While this paper draws upon 15
years of my own work on the everyday urban geopolitics and intergroup
relations in contested cities (references deleted to maintain anonymity),
a latent bias inherent to my positionality could conceivably have
impacted the survey sample, with respondents more closely resembling
my own socio-political profile potentially overrepresented. I have
therefore endeavored to substantiate my conclusions via dispassionate
appraisal of the thematic frequency and inter-textuality of the findings,
drawing on broader social scholarship on residents’ experiences of
boundary crossing in Jerusalem. And while I have chosen to focus on
Jewish-Israeli perspectives and practices in the Muslim Quarter within
the limits of this particular study, in no way does this focus diminish the
empirical and normative importance of Palestinian points of view to a
broader discussion of these issues. As such, it should be noted that with
respect to questions of passing and encounter, the study presents
viewpoints exclusively drawn from members of Jerusalem’s national-
political hegemony. Notwithstanding its limited scope, this study’s
4
Political Geography 93 (2022) 102526
intentionally narrowed focus provides a nuanced description of touristic
perceptions, performances and actions within a particular geopolitical
context.
1.2.2. Back to the Muslim Quarter
The Muslim Quarter is located in the northeastern part of Jer­
usalem’s historical core, the Old City. This densely populated square
kilometer is home to some of the most important Jewish, Muslim and
Christian sites in the world, including the Temple Mount, Haram al
Sharif, and Via Dolorosa, respectively. The Muslim Quarter functions as
both a residential area and a vital urban commercial center for the local
Palestinian community. The area’s numerous markets and religious and
historical sites attract a large number of religious pilgrims and other
international tourists each year. For example, among some three million
international tourists who visited Jerusalem in 2018, 48% traversed the
Via Dolorosa through the Muslim Quarter (JIPR, 2019: Tables XI/11,
XI/12).
The roots of Jewish-Israeli tourism to the Muslim Quarter trace back
to the earliest days of Israeli occupation. On June 29, 1967, three weeks
after the end of the 1967 war, the Municipality of Jerusalem finished
removing the myriad barriers that had separated the Israeli and Jorda­
nian parts of the city since Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948.
Concurrently, the Ministry of Defense decreed free movement between
the two part of the city (Benvenisti, 1976). These events were widely
documented by Israeli contemporary news services and scholarly work
and became essential aspects of the Zionist national memory and his­
torical narrative of Jerusalem. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis poured
into the Old City, seeking out the Western Wall, Temple Mount and
Jewish Quarter. On their way to Israel’s religious and national cynosure,
they passed through the Arab markets of the Old City, famous for their
Armenian ceramic craft, Levantine cuisine and Christian souvenirs. As
M. Shtern
described by Meron Benvenisti, a former vice mayor of Jerusalem:
Jews plunged into the Old City shops and market stalls and bought
left and right. The veterans stormed the piles of Eastern cookies, the
‘Kamardin,’ a dried apricot sweet made as a leather band, drank ‘Sus’
and ‘Tamarhindi’ poured from tacky brass jugs that were carried on
peddlers’ shoulders, and licked ‘Buza’ – the Eastern ice cream that
stretches like gum. (Benvenisti, 1976, p. 148, p. 148)5
Certainly, orientalism has played a crucial role in the construction of
touristic imaginaries in the Middle East (Daher, 2007) and in Israel/­
Palestine in particular (Selwyn, 2017). The orientalist rush to Jer­
usalem’s Old City—and the city’s potential in the imaginary landscape
of the post-war era—became the engine of Israel’s nascent domestic
tourism industry. Teddy Kollek, the long-serving mayor of post-1967
Jerusalem, quickly realized the political potential of devising a new
image for the city. In the 1970s, Kollek developed his concept of the
Mosaic City, a colorful patchwork of communities dwelling peacefully
side-by-side, each in their own cultural spaces (Kollek, 1988). Depo­
liticized and decontextualized multiculturalism helped rebrand the city
as a universal center—a lively junction between East and West, tradition
and modernity. The images of ultra-Orthodox Jews passing by elderly
Arab men in gallabiyah and keffiyeh (traditional robe and headwear,
respectively) painted the city a tranquil and exotic oasis for local and
international tourism. This image was bolstered by the relatively low
levels of political violence towards Jews in Jerusalem during the first
two decades of the occupation Parhan, Pedhazur, & Perlinger, 2005. As
the Jerusalem-based professor of geography Ronni Ellenblum)2004)
articulated in a now-famous op-ed in the Hebrew-language newspaper,
Haaretz:
Till then we all enjoyed the manic orientalism: the colors, the smells
and the sights. We bought carpets and embroidered dresses, we
bargained, lived in Nachalot and ate Hummus. […] Edward Said
hadn’t yet defamed orientalism, and ‘the occupation’ wasn’t a pop­
ular term. We could all enjoy the beautiful city with a clear
conscience.
The illusory serenity of a ‘unified’ Jerusalem collapsed with the
eruption of the first Intifada in December 1987. The previously ‘friendly’
streets of East Jerusalem became ‘no-go’ zones for Jewish Israelis. Police
and army units brutally enforced ‘order’ in Arab neighborhoods, incar­
cerating a generation of Palestinian youth (Cohen, 2013). The exotic
‘mosaic’ shattered. As Ellenblum (2004) described:
And then came the first Intifada and it spoiled the oriental dream.
Suddenly we discovered that Jerusalem is a complex and compli­
cated city. Too complicated. We discovered the occupation. The
Arabs were not enthralled with eating watermelon together under
Damascus Gate. Watching the sunrise from the peak of the Mount of
Olives became too dangerous. […] The sentimental romance was
rejected as orientalism, the city became the symbol of occupation,
Haredization, filth, poverty, bad education, a ‘lost city,’ a ‘finished
city.’
The first Intifada marked the collapse of Jerusalem’s universalist
façade. From this point onwards, was city was mired in open conflict,
with emergent geographies of fear further dividing its principal com­
munities. Within the volatile context of the spiraling conflict, the
Muslim Quarter became a space of ethno-national contestation in which
Israel’s intensifying Judaization and security measures collided with
Palestinian resistance. Since the 1990s, religious-nationalist extremists
have founded nearly 50 Jewish micro-settlements within the Muslim
Quarter (Ir-Amim, 2019). With an aim to establish a significant Jewish
presence within the Palestinian areas of the Old City, these new
5 6
All quotes in this paper were translated from Hebrew by the author.
5
Political Geography 93 (2022) 102526
settlements frequently displace Palestinian families, exacerbating fric­
tion with Palestinian residents.
Furthering this ethno-national rivalry is the increasing centrality of
the Temple Mount/Haram al Sharif (Cohen, 2017). Politically unaffili­
ated Palestinians have targeted Israeli military personnel and civilians
moving through the Muslim Quarter to the al Aqsa compound. Between
August 2014 and December 2016, the Israel Police recorded 256 in­
cidents of unorganized nationalist violence in the Old City, including
133 incidents of “stone throwing,” 64 “riots,” 45 “stabbing” attacks, 27
“petrol bomb” attacks and one “car-ramming”6 (see Rokem, Weiss &
Midownik, 2018). The spatial distribution of these events is represented
in Fig. 2.
Presently, increased security measures have transformed the Old
City, with closed-circuit cameras surveilling the streets 24 h a day; a
zeppelin monitoring rooftops from above; and mobile checkpoints,
Border Police foot patrols and undercover security agents (Grassiani &
Volinz, 2016) frequently disrupting local daily life. Amidst the suffo­
cation of the local Palestinian population, the fear of violence is rooted
ever deeper within the psyche of Jewish Israelis crossing into the Muslim
Quarter.
In the decade following Israel’s suppression of the second Intifada,
there was a dramatic increase in international and domestic tourism in
Jerusalem’s Old City (Cohen-Hattab & Shoval, 2014: 137). Yet many
Jewish Israelis—including residents of Jerusalem—strongly associate
Arab parts of the Old City with the threat of terror (Jabareen et al.,
2019). Indeed, recreational activities by Jewish residents of Jerusalem
have now become exceedingly rare in Palestinian parts of the city, with
Jewish-Israeli visitation to the Muslim Quarter, Mount of Olives and the
adjacent Palestinian CBD dropping significantly amidst the Jerusalem
Intifada (2015–2016) (Sade, 2015; Waldman, 2016).
The visibility of Israel’s military occupation and persistent fear of
violent reprisal among Jewish Israelis calls into question the destina­
tions, motives and praxis of the few remaining Jewish-Israeli visitors to
the Muslim Quarter. In the following section, I explore the discourses of
these ‘tourists.’
1.2.3. “Like crossing into a parallel existence …”
The first question of the survey related to the motivations of visitors
to the Arab Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. Most respondents indicated
these areas’ ‘attractive otherness,’ using the terms ‘ambience,’ ‘magic,’
‘beauty,’ ‘uniqueness’ and ‘different’ to describe their attraction to the
area and the dramatic contrast they experience in this space relative to
West Jerusalem. Edo (25), a secular artist commented, “It is not like any
other place, it is unique and it has a special authenticity that has been
conserved—all the people, the sites, the ambiance.”
This notion echoes the ‘extraordinary experiences’ held out to
Western travelers to non-Western historic destinations—a perceived
authenticity apparently missing in contemporary Western culture
(Hughes, 1995). This cultural distinction is reflected in respondents’
self-awareness of being a ‘tourist in one’s own city’ (Richards, 2017).
Indeed, as reflected in respondents’ reflections, the Old City—despite its
location within occupied East Jerusalem—is perceived as an integral
part of their ‘own’ city. This notion underscores the significance of the
stark sensual contrast they experience when entering the Muslim
Quarter, articulated by most respondents in depoliticized cultural terms.
As Maya (35, writer) describes:
It’s like crossing into a parallel existence, even if it is only 10 minutes
away from my home. When I am stuck with my writing, I go for a
walk around the Old City, and on my way back go through the Salah
ad-Din area (Palestinian CBD). I want in this hour to cross into
different worlds, meet new people and step into a parallel Jerusalem.
Based on an unpublished data file of the Israel Police.
M. Shtern Political Geography 93 (2022) 102526

Fig. 2. Nationalist violence in the vicinity of Jerusalem’s Old City (Source: Israeli Police, Aug 2014–Dec 2016, circle size represents number of events).
Cartography: Rani Mandelbaum.

In a similar vein, Elya (37, musician) explained: understood in light of the growing prominence of Palestinian cuisine in
Israeli recreational culture more broadly (Hirsch, 2011). As suggested by
I’m attracted to the environment of ‘abroad,’ the language, food,
Ranta (2015), Palestinian cuisine is central to the attempt of Jewish
tourists. It is a bit more interesting than the ordinary places. We are
Israelis to acknowledge, connect and relate—in a depoliticized fash­
surrounded by tourists and a multitude of languages. There are not so
ion—to local Palestinian identity. As Yoni (42, business consultant) re­
many people like ‘us’ around, so it creates this feeling of strangeness
flected, “The food, the feel—it feels like being in the Middle East. It feels
[…] a glimpse into someone else’s world. Many unknown corners
older, more timeless, less commercialized in the modern sense.”
and strolling around while discovering new places we didn’t know.
Moreover, the tentative relations between Israeli visitors and Pales­
When asked about specific destinations in the Muslim Quarter, re­ tinian merchants in Jerusalem are seemingly bolstered through the
spondents most frequently cited historical and religious sites, and culi­ instrumentality of commercial exchange. Describing the attitudes of
nary attractions. Popular destinations included Damascus Gate, the local Palestinians towards them, respondents replied,
Muslim markets, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and local eateries
We all have something to gain, they want to sell and we want to buy.
including Lina, Arafat and Jaffar Sweets (see main areas of visitation in
(Itai, 43, contractor)
Fig. 3). Although the respondents reside in Jerusalem, these destinations
indicate the touristic character of their spatial behaviors. The crowd ignores us, and the familiar faces are welcoming, they are
While visitation to the Muslim Quarter’s historical and religious at­ happy for the revenue. (Einat, 46, NGO worker)
tractions may be readily explained in the context of cultural tourism, the
Thus commercial exchange between visitor and (local) merchant not
exceptional dominance of Palestinian cuisine warrants closer scrutiny.
only facilitates recreation, but also serves as a stabilizing assurance
Among respondents, Palestinian culinary tourism was frequently
within a geography of fear.
mentioned as visitors’ primary and often sole motivation for visiting the
Alongside culinary tourism, salient among respondents’ motivations
Muslim Quarter:
for visiting the Old City was their pursuit of a sense of belonging and
I come for the quality of the raw ingredients, the fruits, the vegeta­ connection to East Jerusalem. Carmi (48), a ‘progressive’ music pro­
bles. (Tammi, 42, art curator) ducer who visits friends and restaurants in East Jerusalem at least
monthly, explained the pull he experiences:
Hummus, coffee, olive oil, knaffeh, labaneh. (Noam, 42, software
engineer) This is part of the city and its human diversity. There’s politics and
there’s reality, and the reality is not going to change. Therefore, it’s
Fresh and tasty food at low prices. (Noa, 44, group facilitator)
important for me to have communication with all city inhabitants.
Muslim Quarter cuisine was praised by respondents as ‘authentic,’
Yael (35), a tour guide who visits the Old City several times a week
‘unique’ and ‘worth discovering.’ The centrality of Palestinian food and
for work, reflected on the city’s
culinary products to Jewish-Israeli tourism in East Jerusalem should be

6
M. Shtern Political Geography 93 (2022) 102526

Fig. 3. Geographies of Israeli tourism in Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter (Illuminated areas represent popular destinations and reference frequency in questionnaire
responses). Cartography: Rani Mandelbaum.

complexities, the life, the fact that life is stronger than all complex­ There is tension in the air, and I don’t feel I belong. (Natalie, 32,
ities. The fact that there is no black and white in Jerusalem. We are unemployed)
entwined with each other and everything is gray. There is no division
I know the area well, but I still feel like a foreign element, and
as one would assume—there is dependency and reciprocity.
experience it as a hostile environment. (Ben, 38, teacher)
Carmi and Yael emphasized a layer of normativity in Jewish-Israeli
I convince myself that everything is OK, but always keep my eyes
tourism in East Jerusalem—a wish to undermine an ostensibly intrac­
open and an attentive ear to my surroundings, I take precautions
table cycle of violence and conflict through cross-boundary human
regarding scenarios that might endanger me. (Yael, 32, NGO
connection. As Neomi (55, lecturer) put it, “A sense of a shared city,
director)
shared life. Great people, I want to support their commerce.” Likewise,
Jonathan (36, student) wanted “to live the place we live in, and not to For others, feelings of belonging and estrangement coexist:
look [at everything] through the Left/Right lens.” Beyond orientalist
cultural tourism, these visitors are enabled by a sense of mission and I have mixed emotions—ease combined with fear. (Liel, 44,
shared purpose. Their normative articulations of ordinary tourist prac­ educator)
tices acknowledge their complex political positionality (and desire for Kind of a combination between security and a familiar fear. (Avigail,
legitimization) as Jewish Israelis in a distinctly Palestinian space. Yet it 34, kindergarten teacher)
is the privileged political position of the visitors, as Jewish Israelis in
Jerusalem, that allows them to see positive value in such intergroup Excitement, happiness and concern. (Noa, 47, academic instructor)
encounters (Halperin et al., 2012), disregarding the asymmetric power
The belonging/attraction experienced by Jewish-Israeli residents in
relations embedded in such encounter (Valentine, 2008) under the
this symbolic and geographic center is challenged by their fear of danger
context of ongoing occupation.
and a sense of strangeness in a de-facto foreign space.
Respondents reported adopting various mental and spatial practices
1.2.4. “I always keep my eyes open …”
to enhance their sense of security in the Old City. The ubiquity of the
Jewish-Israeli visitors to the Muslim Quarter were also asked about
Israeli security forces in and around the Old City, however, prompted
their socio-emotional condition. Respondents indicated an internal
mixed reactions. A significant number of respondents considered the
tension between two contradicting themes—fear and exclusion on one
Border Police and military personnel to be a source of security—prer­
hand, and ease and belonging on the other. About a fifth of respondents
equisite to their presence there:
reported only feeling a positive sense of ease and belonging. The vast
majority, however, related a perceived hostility, lack of security and Presence of the border police forces and cameras sometimes helps.
feelings of guilt: (Sigalit, 52, teacher)

I feel secure when I see police in the vicinity. (Yair, 42, Lawyer)

7
M. Shtern Political Geography 93 (2022) 102526

Other respondents, however, indicated that while at times comfort­ sleeve shirts, but not skirts or clothes that will disclose my Jewish
ing, militarization of the space generated a moral dilemma. The constant identity. (Yael, 33, social activist)
presence of armed soldiers in nearly every nook and alley served as a
More than 95% of the attacks were aimed against religious Jews or
reminder of danger and their own positionality as Israelis representing
soldiers. Being neither—I’m not afraid. (Aharon, 39, clerk)
occupation and oppression:
Something in my look obscures the fact that I’m from here. There is
The presence of security forces makes me feel safe and threatened at
something reassuring about it […] I don’t necessarily look
the same time. (Gilad, 30, software engineer)
Jewish—I’m not Haredi or dressed in any way that discloses where
Sometimes the presence of security forces makes me feel safe, but it’s I’m from. (Lior, 39, gardener)
unpleasant for me because I know how it makes the Palestinians feel.
In contrast, the tourist ‘look’ and ability to disappear into a colorful
(Yael, 52, information manager)
and diverse crowd of tourists and locals was perceived as a useful tem­
The cops and the border police there make me feel tense and porary camouflage. As further described by Tammi (37, musician):
ashamed of my Israeli identity. (Moshe, 40, physiotherapist)
In Bab al Amud [Damascus Gate], I don’t feel at ease, but in the
Whether comforting or disquieting, Israeli militarization of the (Muslim) market it feels that I can easily blend into the sea of tour­
Muslim Quarter serves primarily to secure Israeli and international ists, and not necessarily stick out as a Jewish woman.
tourism, as well as Jewish settlements and religious practice in this
These comments evidence a widespread perception among re­
volatile space (Dumper, 2013). Yet for a number of Jewish-Israeli visi­
spondents that while secular Jews can blend into the crowd of interna­
tors, this militarization serves as a reminder that their presence re­
tional tourists in the Old City, religiously observant Jews cannot.
inforces Israel’s semiotic and material colonization of a Palestinian
Religious identity thereby emerges as a central factor in the ability to
communal area.
engage holistically within this landscape and with its inhabitants. It
Notwithstanding the polarizing effect of the Israeli security presence,
suggests that for Jewish Israelis, passing as a tourist in a contested
respondents conveyed the mitigating impact of accumulating spatial
Palestinian space is a limited option reserved for particular social cate­
familiarity. Recurring visits and personal connections with residents and
gories. In this embodied understanding, the respondents (even if
merchants, as well as Arabic-language proficiency, were indicated by
secular) indicate their continuous awareness of the risk of physical
many respondents to enhance their sense of inclusion and safety. As
harm, and of their conflicted position as Jewish Israelis within a Pales­
Sivan (32, NGO worker) explained:
tinian space. This positionality informs their spatial behavior and, as I
In the last few years, my familiarity with the local population, lan­ will elaborate further, constrains their sense of belonging within that
guage and culture has grown. It helps me understand better what’s space.
happening around me and to be sensitive of cultural differences.
2. Discussion
This enhanced perception of belonging may be limited to particular
territories within the Muslim Quarter. As noted by Shtern (2010),
City space is produced through a process of appropriation and
Jewish Israelis tend to enter the Muslim Quarter during daylight hours
territorialization (de-Certeau, 1984). Through the act of walking, city
on holidays and weekends (unless attending a formal event in the eve­
dwellers write a ‘text,’ inscribing meanings throughout the urban space.
ning). They generally keep to busy thoroughfares (such as David St., The
According to Leach (2002, pp. 281–298), “We make a sense of space
Christians St., Beit Habbad St. & Al Wad St.) and avoid wandering into
through walking practices and repeat those practices as a way of over­
side-alleys and distinctly residential Muslim-Palestinian spaces.
coming alienation” (p. 284). In the present case study, Israeli visitors, as
tourists in their own city, endeavor to establish a sense of belonging by
1.2.5. “I can easily blend into the sea of tourists …”
repeated fulfilment of the right to use. This is where the urban aspect of
Throughout all of the responses, the tourist identity emerged as a
everyday geopolitics emerges as crucial, contextualizing questions of
superordinate theme—in the articulation of Jewish-Israeli practices as
tourism geopolitics within the politics of urban space, juxtaposed with
visitors in a local space perceived as foreign, and as a protective
urban political issues such as group segregation and encounter, urban
mechanism in a spatial context of embedded fear and political alien­
citizenship and the right to the city. The self-other dialectics of the
ation. Many respondents related to the risk of being identified as Jewish-
global tourist are framed here within urban group identities, amplified
Israeli through typified external signifiers such as religious head cov­
and sharpened by rival national categories.
erings (e.g., kippah), conservative apparel (e.g., long skirts and sleeves
The most dominant theme across the survey data is a constant un­
traditionally worn by observant Jewish women, even on warm days) or
easiness apparently embedded within Jewish Israelis’ touristic experi­
Hebrew-language printed apparel. Jewish religious appearance was
ences in the Muslim Quarter. With respect to their spatial practices and
seen as particularly risky, as an ostensible visual marker of Jewishness
embodied experiences, respondents consistently indicated an unre­
and political identity.7
solved tension between their wish to explore, experience and belong to
In the last decade, unorganized acts of terrorism in Jerusalem have
this contested space and their feelings of fear and strangeness. This
disproportionately targeted Jews in religious apparel, especially within
tension appears to inform their practices, from their behavior to their
the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, where observant Muslims and Jews
physical appearance. Amidst this mental dialectic, the tourist perfor­
encounter each other on a daily basis (Mizrachi, 2015). Accordingly, the
mance offers a qualified remedy—a social space mediating between
lack of religious visuality was characterized by respondents as vital in
visitor and place, between city residents and spaces of ‘otherness’ within
constructing a sense of anonymity and security:
their own city. These dialectics represent the realization of the everyday
Many times I am afraid, especially going through the gates in light of geopolitics of tourism. At the intersection of political conflict and
the stabbings in recent years. I insist on wearing long pants and long romanticized tourism is an ongoing production and defragmentation of
social boundaries aiming continuously to realize a sense of belonging.
In this context, the attachment of Jewish-Israeli visitors to renowned
historical sites and popular culinary attractions in the Muslim Quarter of
Jerusalem’s Old City suggests their formation of an urban mental map
7
Israeli settlers in the West bank, for example, are commonly identified by built upon geographies of safety and trust. The frequenting of popular
their distinctly conservative apparel. eateries, whose proprietors and staff are well-accustomed to Jewish-

8
M. Shtern
Israeli visitors, provides these ‘tourists’ an embodied familiarity and
sense of physical assurance. The hummus restaurants, popular outlooks
(e.g., the roof of the Austrian hospice) and central alleyways emerge as
anchor points for Jewish-Israeli visitation. These frequented pathways
assemble mentally into zones of security and relative familiarity, with
unknown establishments and side-streets constituting spatialities of
anxiety.
Another source of ongoing and unresolved tension derives from the
Jewish-Israeli visitors’ status as residents of Jerusalem, who find
themselves as tourists in a city they consider their own. Despite the
perceived immediacy of political violence, as Jewish Israelis, they seek
not only leisure, but also a sense of belonging to the built and human
landscape, its history, daily routines, and for some, its Indigenous peo­
ple. As such, the touristic veneer is an enforced and disruptive necessity
that in many ways undermines their aims—as tourists, their experiences
of the space are limited to the gaze of the estranged outsider. Since being
a tourist implies an inherent position of strangeness, it entails the point-
of-view of the outsider, rather than the local inhabitant (Pearce, 2005).
The ongoing attempt to claim and appropriate space by repeatedly
returning to ‘safe’ nodes is therefore futile. The tourists’ dependence
upon and attachment to particular sites and venues simply reinforces
their geographical and political alienation.
According to some of the respondents, the tourist positionality also
alters their striving for meaningful encounter with local Palestinians. In
performing as tourists, the Jewish-Israeli outsiders fail to establish
direct, resident-to-resident contact with the local population. They are
locked within the positionality of the customer, observer and foreigner.
In fact, it seems that between their political positionality as members of
the hegemonic majority within the territory of an occupied minority,
positively transformative contact (Alport, 1954) is essentially rendered
impossible.
It is important to emphasize that the notion of ‘passing’ has typically
been applied with reference to marginalized groups navigating spaces of
socioeconomic and racial exclusion (Ginsberg, 1996, pp. 1–18). In
contrast, the present case study refers to the spatial practices of a heg­
emonic sub-group visiting an enclave of a subjugated minority. This
prism may be used to clarify the ways in which Jewish-Israeli visitors
seek acceptance and security in a space they perceive to be exclusive.
Paradoxically, the easiest way (for some) to obtain a sense of belonging
to the Muslim Quarter is to obscure their national subjectivity by per­
forming as tourists. Critically, though, with respect to the political he­
gemony of Jewish Israelis in Jerusalem, the ability to move across
boundaries as tourists entails privilege, thus reflecting and reproducing
extant power relations.
The privileged right to be a tourist is not limited to Jerusalem, nor
the broader context of the conflict in Israel-Palestine. As practiced by
diverse populations throughout the developing and developed worlds
alike, contemporary tourism serves to embody and reproduce uneven
macro-power structures of race, ethnicity and nationality (Britton,
1991). Tourism is also utilized by many states as a tool for
white-washing human rights violations, improving states’ international
image and normalizing structural inequalities. In light of these factors,
the practice of ‘passing as a tourist’ may comprise yet another tool of
cultural dispossession and political oppression. As demonstrated in this
study, asymmetric power dynamics may be reproduced through
particular touristic modes, including the orientalist nature of Israeli
tourism in Palestinian localities and the privileged presence of the
tourist-visitor.
However, this study also highlights the limits of political power and
domination in the production of a contested urban space. The ongoing
Israeli oppression and violent and non-violent Palestinian resistance
within the Muslim Quarter mark this territory as a space of anti-
normalization in which the ‘regular’ presence of Jewish residents of
Jerusalem is impossible. As such, the tourist performance becomes less
one of privilege, and more the prerogative of the strong. This unusual
case, which focuses on the everyday routines of a privileged few acting
9
Political Geography 93 (2022) 102526
within the spaces of a marginalized community, presents on the one
hand a subtle desire for intergroup connection, but also the limits of
power and entitlement under even the most securitized conditions.
Urban segregation, even when enforced by institutional violence, is
inherently indefinite and subject to the counterforces of curiosity, hope
and inclusion.
‘Passing as a tourist’ thereby constitutes a dialectical social space
that entails unresolved tensions between fear and attraction, between
the wish to localize and the tendency to patronize, between the tourist’s
desire for justice and (if rueful) attachment to one’s hegemonic status.
Jewish-Israeli ‘tourism’ in Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter reveals that the
bridging of tourism and everyday urban geopolitics foregrounds and
accentuates extant dilemmas of power, exploitation, authenticity and
performance in global tourism today. As a spatial practice and as an
embodied performance, ‘passing as a tourist’ provides intense and pro­
found experiences that subject the ‘tourist’ to ongoing processes of self-
awareness and reflection upon their own positionality and legitimacy.
This study brings together the fields of urban geopolitics and tourism
through an analysis of the practices and performances of Jewish-Israeli
‘tourists’ in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. The paper in­
troduces the idea of ‘passing as a tourist’ as a conceptual prism to
investigate how city denizens navigate politically contested and volatile
urban spaces, while confronting their fears, desires, embarrassments and
hopes. When tourism meets the contested city, it entangles the visitors
with the city’s local urban geopolitics, enforced group boundaries and
stark power polarizations. ‘Passing as a tourist’ forces the ‘tourist’ to
engage and act within these configurations.
In the broader context of urban geopolitics, this paper contributes to
an expanding scholarship on everyday activities—such as shopping,
wandering and touring—as fields for the study of actually embodied
geopolitics. Urban spaces of tourism emerge as sites in which political
power is negotiated between individuals and communities. It is the
transnational dimension of tourism that endows this act with political
agency in contexts of ethnonational dispute. Yet, as I argue in this paper,
such transnationality is conditional, temporal and challenged constantly
by the tyrannies of power relations and national allegiance.
Finally, this paper is focused only on the experiences and perceptions
of ‘tourists.’ Future investigation into the practices of passing in the
context of the geopolitics of tourism would usefully explore the points of
view of the endemic population. Such research could shed light on the
ways in which subaltern groups perceive, understand and acknowledge
the ‘tourist’ camouflage adorned by members of the hegemony.
Furthermore, future research should examine practices of ‘passing as a
tourist’ in other regional contexts of violent political conflict.
Declaration of competing interest
I have no conflict of interest to declare.
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