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 […]
By Sami Kishawi This article was originally published by the Electronic Intifada on 7 July 2011 and is republished on arenaofpeculation.org with permission from the author. You can read more of Sami’s dispatches from Gaza on his blog ‘Sixteen Minutes to Palestine’ Many of the people I’ve spoken to in Gaza City don’t object to […]
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 […]
By Daniel Monterescu This article was originally published under the title “The ‘Housing Intifada’ and Its Aftermath: Ethno-Gentrification and the Politics of Communal Existence in Jaffa” in Anthropology News, December 2008, pg. 21. (Republished on arenaofspeculation.org with permission from the author.) Jaffa, an ethnically “mixed town” located minutes away from Tel-Aviv’s metropolitan center, yet marked as sui generis cultural […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]