Categories
Advocacy Physical Intervention

Freedom Flotilla II: Towards Ending the Siege on Gaza

In the coming week, activists from across the world are taking part in a collective action aimed at ending the siege of Gaza. Freedom Flotilla II (dubbed the “Stay Human” flotilla in memory of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni) is expected to bring together ships from 10 different countries, carrying passengers from across the spectrum of […]

Categories
Advocacy Critical Speculation

Counter-Mapping Return: Towards Transforming Imagined Geographies into Reality

Following the events of May 15th, grassroots activists and community organisations have chosen June 5th – Naksa Day, the anniversary commemorating the displacement of thousands of Palestinians during the 1967 War – as an occasion for further mobilisation towards actively asserting the Palestinan right to return. In the context of our recent feature, we wanted […]

Categories
Critical Speculation Spatial Analysis

Subjective Atlas of Palestine: Asserting the Right to Narrate

The right to history, to individual and collective memories of the past, and to a self-determined perspective on the future were at the core of the Nakba commemorations across the world on 15th May. The Subjective Atlas of Palestine, edited by Annelys de Vet and published by 010 Publishers, seems to offer an embodiment of […]

Categories
Critical Speculation Physical Intervention

Planning Al-Awda: Re-Imagining the Spatial Contours of Israel-Palestine

This past weekend the world watched as Palestinians in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Gaza and the West Bank marched on the recognised and unrecognised borders of Israel to mark Nakba Day. This by no means represents the first attempt by Palestinians to return to their homeland. In fact, against the odds, many thousands risked their lives […]

Categories
Spatial Analysis

Consigned to History? Memoirs of a Closed Rafah Crossing

by Sami Kishawi At a moment of immense hope following the Egyptian announcement that the Rafah crossing is soon to be permanently reopened, Sami Kishawi offers a personal reflection on the untold history of the siege of Gaza, prior to the 2005 Israeli ‘pull-out’. This article was originally published on Sami’s blog ‘Sixteen Minutes to […]

Categories
Critical Speculation

Recognising Palestine: Towards Emancipation or Cementing Prosthetic Sovereignty?

Today in Cairo, Fatah, Hamas and the other main political factions in the occupied Palestinian territories announced a reconciliation agreement promising new democratic elections in Gaza and the West Bank “within a year”.(1) However, this development intersects with another timeline as Salam Fayyad’s two year ‘state building’ initiative comes to its conclusion in the West […]

Categories
Critical Speculation Physical Intervention

TEDxRamallah: Voices from Free Palestine

On Saturday 16th April, TEDxRamallah, a remarkable transnational event will be taking place in Bethlehem, Amman and Beirut, to be streamed on the same day to venues in more than 20 cities across the world, from Cairo to New York. Asserting “the power of culture over the culture of power”,(1) in the words of the […]

Categories
Advocacy Physical Intervention

Land Day: Al-Araqib and its Implications for the Spatial Struggle

Since 27 July 2010, when Israeli authorities demolished the village for the first time, the struggle for al-Araqib has risen to international prominence, becoming a focal point in the Palestine solidarity movement, both locally and internationally. On the occasion of Land Day (which this year sees a global BDS day of action), it seems apt […]

Categories
Advocacy Spatial Analysis

Makan: The Right to a Spatial Narrative

Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, recently published Volume 2 of Makan (meaning ‘Place’ in Arabic), their periodic journal for Land, Planning and Justice. This volume reveals the centrality of spatial planning and urban design in the continued suppression of Palestinian history and memory. Indeed, it is argued that this erasure […]

Categories
Blog

Press Release

For immediate release on 21 March 2011 Media Contacts London: Ahmad Barclay | ahmad [at] arenaofspeculation.org Doha: Dena Qaddumi | dena [at] arenaofspeculation.org New website arenaofspeculation.org opens window on ‘spatial resistance’ in Israel-Palestine Architects, planners and spatial thinkers launch open platform for analysis, advocacy and activism towards transforming the balance of spatial power. The recent […]

Categories
Advocacy

Saving Lifta: Stepping up the Campaign

This week, the Coalition to Save Lifta announced that, following a petition submitted on 6 March, an Israeli court had ordered a temporary freeze on plans to build a new luxury Jewish neighbourhood on the remains of the Palestinian village of Lifta.

Categories
Advocacy Spatial Analysis

Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine

In their 7th annual conference in London, entitled ‘Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine’, the SOAS (School of Oriental and Aftrican Studies) Palestine Society have chosen to focus on the theme of ‘settler colonialism’, both in terms of its history and its ongoing relevance as a point of focus in the struggle for justice […]