Mass protest in public space is often situated as the normative mode of resistance in contemporary states. This was emphasized in 2011 when mass revolutionary protest emerged in large-scale public spaces in capital cities across the Arab region. In Palestine, this overlap of public space and resistance is interrupted. Decades of colonization, oppressive planning and policing, and the perpetuation of the refugee question have troubled notions of what constitutes the “public” and its representation in spaces designed and managed by the “state”. Studying public space and resistance in Palestine sheds light on the limitations and potentials of coupling these concepts, while providing inspiration for resistance acts in varied site types. 

Key Questions

  • In what ways is public space a site of resistance in contexts of colonization and domination?
  • How does colonial expansion, through the built and natural environments, multiply sites of resistance? 
  • How have Palestinians used the material and symbolic power of different kinds of public space to make political claims?

Key Cases

  • Palestine Arab Revolt (1936–1939)
  • Land Day
  • 1st and 2nd Intifadas
  • Great March of Return 
  • Public space in Palestinian cities
  • Resistance in refugee camps
  • Resistance on apartheid infrastructure

Key Resources

  1. Alaqra, Ahmad. 2018. “(Un)Making Qalandia: Politicized Spatial Practices of the Palestinian Refugee Camp.” The Funambulist Magazine, March 9, 2018. ( open-access link ) 
  2. Falah, Ghazi-Walid, and Colin Flint. 2004. “Geopolitical Spaces: The Dialectic of Public and Private Space in the Palestine–Israel Conflict.” The Arab World Geographer 7 (1–2): 117–34. ( open-access link )
  3. Nasasra, Mansour. 2022. “From Damascus Gate to Shaikh Jarrah: The Palestinian Sovereignty Protests in East Jerusalem.” Protest 1 (2): 329–45. ( open-access link )
  4. تماري، سليم.2012. ”أم الغريب: تخطيط المدن وتطور الحيِّز العام في فلسطين العثمانية.“ حوليات القدس. 13. 26-46. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول )

English version: Tamari, Salim. 2017. “The Sweet Aroma of Holy Sewage: Urban Planning and the New Public Space in Palestine.” In The Great War and the Remaking of Palestine. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 38-66. ( chapter description and WorldCat link )

Further Resources 

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  1. Abusalim, Jehad. 2018. “The Great March of Return: An Organizer’s Perspective.” Journal of Palestine Studies 47 (4): 90–100. ( link )
  2. Alım, Eray. 2020. “The Art of Resistance in the Palestinian Struggle Against Israel.” Turkish Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 7 (1): 45–79. ( open-access link )
  3. Alnaji, Hala, Shyma Naji, Husam Salem, Ibrahim Naji, and Mustefi Naji. 2016. “Visual Ethnography and Urban Practice Investigation: ‘The Palestinian Urban Practices in Gaza Strip during War 2014.’” ( open-access link )
  4. Barakat, Rana. 2021. “‘Ramadan Does Not Come for Free’: Refusal as New and Ongoing in Palestine.” Journal of Palestine Studies 50 (4): 90–95. ( link )
  5. بشارة، عزمي. 2003. ”الحيز العام والحيز الخاص.“ في: طروحات عن النهضة المعاقة. رام الله: مواطن، المؤسسة الفلسطينية لدراسة الديمقراطية. 113-122. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول )
  6. Chalcraft, John. 2016. Popular Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 240-56 ( WorldCat link )
  7. Dibiasi, Caroline Mall. 2015. “Changing Trends in Palestinian Political Activism: The Second Intifada, the Wall Protests, and the Human Rights Turn.” Geopolitics 20 (3): 669–95. ( link )
  8. El-Atrash, Ahmad. 2020. “Placemaking Interventions in Palestine as Demonstration Effects on the Ground.” The Journal of Public Space, no. Vol. 5 n. 1: 167–76. ( open-access link )
  9. Hasan, Dana, and Sahera Bleibleh. 2023. “The Everyday Art of Resistance: Interpreting ‘Resistancescapes’ against Urban Violence in Palestine.” Political Geography 101: 102833. ( link )
  10. حسن، دانة وساحرة بليبلة، إعادة قراءة الفضاء العام: التعبير بالغرافيتي في مواجهة العنف المكاني في فلسطين، جدليّة، يونيو، 28، 2021. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول ) 
  11. Junka, Laura. 2006. “The Politics of Gaza Beach.” Third Text 20 (3–4): 417–28. ( link )
  12. كنفاني، غسان. ثورة ٣٦ - ٣٩ في فلسطين: خلفيات و تفاصيل و تحليل. د.ن ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول )

English version: Kanafani, Ghassan. 1980 [1972]. The 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine. London: Tricontinental Society. ( open-access link )

  1. Murray, Hubert. 2021. “Landscape as Resistance in the West Bank.” Places Journal. ( open-access link )
  2. Salah, Shadi. 2023. “On Public Spaces of Palestinian Refugee Camps: The Social Production and Construction of Almarkaz ‘Taxi Station.’” In Living Politics in the City: Architecture as Catalyst for Public Space, edited by Marion Hohlfedt and Carmen Popescu. Leuven: Leuven University Press. ( WorldCat link )
  3. Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera. 2006. “Counter-Spaces as Resistance in Conflict Zones.” Journal of Feminist Family Therapy 17 (3–4): 109–41. ( open-access link )
  4. Shibli, Adania. 2006. “Al-Manara Square: Monumental Architecture and Power.” Jerusalem Quarterly, no. 26, 52–64. ( open-access link )
  5. Totry-Fakhoury, Maisa, and Nurit Alfasi. 2018. “When Contradicting Public Space Regimes Collide: The Case of Palestinian Israeli Towns.” The Geographical Journal 184 (4): 429–42. ( link )
  6. Zawawi, Zahraa, Eric Corijn, and Bas Van Heur. 2013. “Public Spaces in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” GeoJournal 78 (4): 743–58. ( link )

Audiovisual Material

  1. Cowan, Paul and Amer Shomali, directors. 2014. The Wanted 18. National Film Board of Canada, 75 mins. ( link )
  2. د.م. 2017 ”أبو جلدة والعرميط“. د.ن. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول )

Image: View of Apartheid Wall, Bethlehem, 2013. Photograph by Dena Qaddumi.

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