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Critical Speculation

This Place They Dried From The Sea: An Interview with Kamal Aljafari

By Nasrin Himada This interview originally appeared on Montreal Serai. It is re-published on arenaofspeculation.org with kind permission. For those based in the UK, the film Port of Memory will be screened in London later this month — including a Q&A with director Kamal Aljafari — as part of the London Palestine Film Festival. Opening […]

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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

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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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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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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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 […]

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Advocacy Physical Intervention

The ‘Housing Intifada’ and Its Aftermath

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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]