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Critical Speculation Spatial Analysis

Playing in a Landscape of Separation Lines and Practices

By Idit Elia Nathan ‘Just as none of us is outside or beyond geography, none of us is completely free from the struggle over geography. That struggle is complex and interesting because it is not only about soldiers and cannons but also about ideas, about forms, about images and imaginings.’ -Edward Said ‘Perception Requires Involvement’ […]

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Spatial Analysis

Signposts from a Contested Landscape: A Photographic Archive

Words and images by Diego Segatto In this original article for arenaofspeculation.org, Diego Segatto shares his experiences of reading the conflict through the built and natural landscapes of Israel-Palestine. His photographs are generously shared here on a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license. Questo articolo è pubblicato anche in italiano. Il testo italiano segue l’inglese. Surveillance […]

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Critical Speculation Spatial Analysis

Weaponized Architecture: A Discussion with Léopold Lambert

The following is an interview with Léopold Lambert (@TheFunambulist_), author of ‘Weaponized Architecture: The Impossibility of Innocence’ (published by dpr-barcelona), a new publication that offers an analysis of Israel’s architecture of colonization in the context of global trends in architecture and urbanism, and uses architectural design as a tool to highlight and subvert the spatial […]

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Advocacy Spatial Analysis

From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record, 1947-50

Throughout this month the Mosaic Rooms in London plays host to the exhibition “From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction & State Formation 1947-50”. The timing of the exhibition, curated by visual theorist Ariella Azoulay, coincides with the release of an English translation of her accompanying book, and is complemented by a series […]

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Critical Speculation

After September? Strategies in Bypass Urbanism

With the much-vaunted month of September 2011 now behind us, and the Palestinian Authority’s statehood recognition drive presently forestalled by UN bureaucracy, perhaps it is a good time to turn our eyes back to the situation on the ground. As yet another settlement expansion receives approval, it is increasingly difficult to square the idea of […]

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Advocacy Critical Speculation

Palestine: Between Spatial Realities and Engaging the Imagination

by Ahmad Barclay and Dena Qaddumi This article was originally published on Jadaliyya as a part of the recent roundtable in response to ‘Occupation Law and the One State Reality’ by Darryl Li, which was featured on this site last month. You can read the full roundtable on the Jadaliyya site, including contributions from Noura […]

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Advocacy Critical Speculation

Why not Return? Towards Return of Palestinian Refugees

by Eitan Bronstein This Thursday, 15th September, a remarkable exhibition will open in Tel-Aviv, seeking to engage head-on with the legacy of the Palestinian Nakba. Curated by Zochrot and entitled ‘Towards return of Palestinian refugees’, the exhibition brings together a collection of projects that engage in concrete and propositive ways with the challenges of realising […]

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Critical Speculation Spatial Analysis

Common Assembly: Deterritorializing the Palestinian Parliament

In their latest project, DAAR (Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency) investigate the site of the abandoned ‘Palestinian Parliament’ building in East Jerusalem, attempting to spatialise questions of democratic representation within a ‘deterritorialized’ Palestinian diaspora, and to imagine an ‘extra-territorial’ space of assembly “that is able to represent all Palestinians: those living in Israel, under its occupation, […]

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Physical Intervention

Olive Revolution: Challenging the Closure of Jerusalem

Today (26th August), a broad coalition of grassroots activists will descend on Jerusalem from four directions, marching on Israeli checkpoints in Qalandia (Ramallah), Bethlehem, Shu’afat refugee camp and the village of Biddu. The action coincides with the international Youm Al-Quds (Jerusalem Day), which is marked annually on the last Friday of Ramadan. The action has […]

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Spatial Analysis

Occupation Law and the One-State Reality

by Darryl Li This essay is based on a lecture delivered at the University of Palestine Law Faculty in Gaza, 2 July 2011. It was originally posted on Jadaliyya, and is re-posted on arenaofspeculation.org with permission from the author. Darryl Li is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University and […]

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Advocacy Physical Intervention

Tent 1948: Challenging Conceptions of ‘Social Justice’ in Israel

by Abir Kopty The following article was originally published on Mondoweiss. It is re-published on arenaofspeculation.org with kind permission from the author. Abir Kopty is a media analyst and consultant and political activist, she is a former city council member in Nazareth & former spokeswoman for Mossawa, the Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel. […]

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Critical Speculation

Decolonizing the Mind: TEDxRamallah Talk by Alessandro Petti

Alessandro Petti, director of DAAR (Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency), talks about the work and approach of the practice. The talk was a part of the TEDxRamallah event, previously featured on arenaofspeculation.org and supported by contributors to the site. The DAAR office was founded in 2007 with the aim of moving beyond simply describing the spatial […]