Today, as the world continues to watch the mass destruction of Gaza, questions of reconstruction emerge again, reflecting on more than a century marked by destruction, writing and rewriting of history in Palestine. The settler colonial system has destroyed hundreds of Palestinian villages, educational centers, archives, and universities, changed streets’ and villages’ names, and continues to forcibly evict Palestinians from their homes and cities. This material and symbolic erasure has been used by Israel as a tool to uproot Palestinians and their heritage from their homeland. Millions of Palestinian refugees remain scattered around the world with no right to return even to the ruins of their homes and to commemorate the Nakba. Despite the scale of this loss and injury, Palestine teaches us—geographers, architects and urban planners—to rethink the politics and aims of reconstruction towards imagining a free and just future that connects Palestinians within their own country, as well as Palestinians in diaspora. But where to start without an end of colonization?

Key Questions

  • How have Palestinian cities,villages and refugee camps been impacted by cycles of destruction?
  • What is reconstruction in the context of Palestine? And how can we deconstruct reconstruction so that it moves beyond its materiality?
  • How could reconstruction create a future that connects with the dark histories of destruction rather than divorcing from it?
  • What is the role of cultural heritage in the process of reconstruction?
  • Reconstruction of cities requires the involvement of several stakeholders. What are the politics of reconstruction? How can local communities remain central in the future reconstruction?

Key Cases

  • Cycles of destruction and reconstruction in Gaza
  • Demolition of Palestinian’s villages during and after the 1948 Nakba
  • Israel’s unlawful displacement and house demolition in the West Bank and an-Naqab
  • Reconstruction of housing in Gaza 1993-2000
  • Reconstruction of memory in exile: archive reconstruction
  • Refugee camps reconstruction (Jenin and Nahr al-Bared refugee camps)
  • The Competition for the Reconstruction of Destroyed Palestinian Villages. ( open-access link )

Key Resources

  1. Ahmad, Nadia N. 2011. “Gaza: a case study of urban destruction through military involvement.” Master Thesis, The Temple University. ( open-access link )
  2. Al-Haq. 2012. Escalation in Forcible Transfer and Demolitions in Area C. Palestinian Human Rights Organizations’ Council, September 28, 2012. ( open-access link )
  3. الخالدي، وليد، محرر، كي لا ننسى: قرى فلسطين التي دمرتها إسرائيل سنة 1948 وأسماء شهدائها. ترجمة حسني زينة. واشنطن: مؤسسة الدراسات الفلسطينية. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول)

English version: Khalidi, Walid, ed. 1992. All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington DC: The Institute for Palestine Studies. ( book description and WorldCat link )

  1. أبو سعادة، ندي. 2024. ”إعادة الإعمار ومشروعنا التحرري.“ مؤسسة الدراسات الفلسطينية. أبريل 17، 2024. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول )
  2. بشارة، خلدون. 2024. ” تربية الأمل: نفعل في غزة ما يفعله العاطلون عن العمل.“ مجلة الدراسات الفلسطينية، 137 (شتاء):46 - 51. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول )

Further Resources

Please contact us if you would like access to any resources.

  1. Abujidi, Nurhan. 2014. Urbicide in Palestine: Spaces of Oppression and Resilience. London. New York: Routledge. ( WorldCat link )
  2. Amiry, Suad and Khaldun Bshara, eds. 2015. Reclaiming Space: The Rehabilitation of 50 Villages in Rural Palestine. Ramallah: Riwaq. ( open-access link )
  3. Barakat, Sultan, Ghassan Elkahlout, and Tim Jacoby. 2004. “The reconstruction of housing in Palestine 1993–2000: a case study from the Gaza strip.” Housing Studies, 19 (2): 175-192. ( open-access link )
  4. de Hoog, Niels, Antonio Voce, Elena Morresi, Manisha Ganguly and Ashley Kirk. 2024. “How war destroyed Gaza’s neighbourhoods – visual investigation.” The Guardian, January 30, 2024. ( open-access link )
  5. Forensic Architecture. 2024. Destruction of Medical Infrastructure in Gaza. ( open-access link )
  6. Hanafi, Sari. 2009. “Spacio-cide: Colonial Politics, Invisibility and Rezoning in Palestinian Territory.” Contemporary Arab Affairs 2 (1): 106–21. ( open-access link )
  7. El Khoudary, Yasmeen. 2019. “Gaza’s Historical Cycles of Prosperity and Destruction” in Routledge Handbook on Middle East Cities, 1st edition, edited by Haim Yacobi and Mansour Nasasra. New York: Routledge. ( chapter description and WorldCat link )
  8. Jabareen, Yosef. 2024. “The Architecture of Dispossession: On the Dark Side of Architecture and Art in Transforming Original Spaces and Displacing People.” Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. ( open-access link ) 
  9. Milton, Sansom, Ghassan Elkahlout, and Saba Attallah. 2024. “Shrinking reconstruction space in the Gaza Strip: rebuilding after the 2021 and 2022 wars.” Conflict, Security & Development, 24(1): 49-78. ( open-access link )
  10. Sorkin, Michael, and Deen Sharp, eds. 2021. Open Gaza: Architectures of Hope. Cairo. New York: Cairo University Press. ( WorldCat link )
  11. Munayer, Luzan. 2024. “Cultural restoration: Kafr ‘Aqab in the West Bank, Palestine by Riwaq.” The Architectural Review, February 7, 2024. ( open-access link )
  12. Saad, Dima. 2019. “Materializing Palestinian Memory: Objects of Home and the Everyday Eternities of Exile.” Jerusalem Quarterly, 80 (Winter): 57- 71. ( open-access link )
  13. Sheikh Hassan, Ismael. 2021. “Activism in the Context of Reconstructing Nahr al-Bared Refugee Camp: Lessons for Syria’s Reconstruction?” Arab Reform Initiative, October 28, 2021. ( open-access link )
  14. وايزمان، إيال. 2017.”حرب مدينيّة: السيرُ عبر الجدران،“ في أرض جوفاء: الهندسة المعمارية للاحتلال الاسرائيلي. ترجمة باسل وطفة. القاهرة: مدارات للأبحاث والنشر، 281 - 331. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول )

English version: Weizman, Eyal. 2007. “Urban Warfare: Walking Through Walls,” In Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of occupation. London; New York: Verso, 185 – 220. ( WorldCat link )

  1. أمارة، أحمد. 2018. ”أم الحيران نموذج لتهجير وإعادة تهجير عرب النقب.“ مجلة الدراسات الفلسطينية، 114 (ربيع): 76 – 85. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول )
  2. سالم، يارا. 2024. ”سياسة الدعم والتمويل الغربية: ما قبل، والآن، وما بعد.“ مجلة الدراسات الفلسطينية، 137 (شتاء):220 - 226. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول ).
  3. طه، لبنى، وباسل نصر. 2023. ” أطفال يعيدون بناء مدرستهم عبر فن الرسوم المتحركة.“ مؤسسة الدراسات الفلسطينية. مارس 21، 2023. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول ).

Audiovisual Material

  1. Abu Jabal, Salim, director. Roshmia. Boujabel Productions. 2015. 70 min. ( link )
  2. Bakri, Mohammed, director. Jenin, Jenin. Iyad Tahar Samoudi. 2002. 54 min. ( open-access link )
  3. Hadjithomas, Joana, and Khalil Joreige, directors. Je veux voir. Mille et Une Productions. 2008. 75 min. ( link )
  4. خليفي، ميشيل، مخرج. معلول تحتفل بدمارها. ميشيل خليفي وبيرين هامبله. 1984. 31 د. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول )
  5. Sharp, Deen, Helga Tawil-Souri, Fadi Shayya, and Tareq Baconi. 2021. “Open Gaza Launch Video.” February 28, 2021. YouTube link, 1:00:44. ( open-access link )

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Image: A partially destroyed house during the Battle of Jenin 2002 in the Jenin Palestinian Refugee Camp. The Joss Dray Collection, the Palestinian Museum Digital Archive .

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