CONTRIBUTIONS

RUANNE ABOURAHME & BASEL ABBAS

“In what would appear to us as one of the darkest moments in Palestinian lived history, a ‘dream-world’ has somehow emerged in the West Bank: a host of commodified desires, semblance of normality, have been constructed atop the debris of political failure and collapse.”

YAZID ANANI

“We suddenly woke up after nearly a decade of the Oslo Agreements to find out that architecture has become a means of transforming the urban realm into an assemblage of containers, stacking people, homes, businesses and companies on top of each other, and branding the city with what is available only via liberal market forces.” Read more ›

JOHARAH BAKER

“ What was once the main section of a vibrant thoroughfare between Bir Nabala and Al Ram, connecting with the road to Ramallah and Jerusalem is now a desolate, empty ghost town.” Read more ›

SHUMON BASAR

“Why would a city that starts from almost nothing end up evoking so much from what we already know? What were some of the fundamental steps for this city from zero? Here are a few that were instrumental to Dubai during the short first decade of the 21st century.” Read more ›

TAYSIR BATNIJI

“From the beginning, the Israeli occupation has deliberately used the destruction of homes as a means of collective punishment for Palestinians, thus destroying the inhabitants’ memories, and causing displacement and massive upheaval.” Read more ›

SUHAD BISHARA

“As legal activists working at Adala, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, we try to employ the law to resist what we perceive as unjust planning policies that further marginalize Arabs living within the Green Line.” Read more ›

TEDDY CRUZ

“Citizenship is less a matter of belonging to the nation state and owning the papers that allow you to belong to this private club, and more an opportunity for a creative reorganization of protocols to produce new spaces in the city.” Read more ›

RAMI DAHER

“The same investors, the same trans-nationalist capitalist class, the same projects are being replicated across different Arab cities, causing major displacements of local communities to the outskirts of the city, creating exclusive and posh environments for the upper middle class. ” Read more ›

THE HANGAR

“As we all know, Lebanon has both official and unofficial capitals. One of the unofficial capitals is the Southern Beirut suburb of Dahyeh, a place linked to the July 2006 war.” Read more ›

SHURUQ HARB

“Ramallah Municipality’s street naming project is another cosmetic step towards organizing and regulating the city: trimming and grooming, which makes it user-friendly for tourists.” Read more ›

YAZAN KHALILI

“Some of the cars are stolen, some are legally dumped. They said this makes it harder for the Israeli army to figure out which is which. We drove west that night, but we didn’t reach the sea… ” Read more ›

ALESSANDRO PETTI

“We see in the thickness of the line an extraterritorial territory, perhaps all that remains from Palestine, a thin but powerful space for potential political transformations.” Read more ›

URBAN TOUR

July 21, 2011

Commentary by: Yazid Anani, Taysir Arori, Joharah Baker, Yazan Khalili, Khaldoun Bshara, Amir Dajani

Designing Civic Encounter started with a commented bus tour in and around Ramallah, highlighting distinctive urban landscapes that can be considered emblematic of wider political issues taking place in Palestine.

Although Ramallah is a relatively small city, it has experienced radical urban expansions and population growth since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 and the consequent establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 1996. Real Estate is the main target for foreign corporate investment today. Yet Oslo has introduced uneven developments with areas designated “A”, under PA administration, being the primary site of urbanization and investment while areas designated “C”, still under Israeli military administration, remain in limbo, suffering from depopulation and isolation, ultimately interrupting the natural expansion of Palestinian built up areas.

Tour starts at Riwaq.

Yazid Anani comments on Ramallah’s unique location from the Riwaq’s roof top. Situated on the Jerusalem road, the city was always a passage through Northern cities such as Nablus. From this point, you can see the Israeli settlement Pasgot.

Al Mukatah, is the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority.

Inside Yasser Arafat’s temporary grave in Al Mukatah.

Al Manara, downtown Ramallah.

Inside Stars & Bucks Cafe.

View of Al Manara from Stars & Bucks Cafe.

Khaldun Bshara addresses the group.

The Israeli Separation Wall at Bir Nabala village. The wall separates Bir Nabala from nearby Jerusalem neighborhoods.

Under the by-pass road in Bir Nabala. By-pass roads are designated for Israelis only, allowing them to pass through/above areas populated by Palestinians.

Resident and journalist Joharah Baker speaks about her experience in Bir Nabala village which is mostly designated as area ‘C’ and thus still remains under full Israeli military and administrative control.

Bus arrives at Birzeit University Housing Complex in Al Tirah neighborhood.

Most of Al Tirah area was designated as an Israeli Military zone until the early nineties. Upon the signing of the Oslo Accords, the designation of Al Tira changed allowing it to be integrated within Ramallah’s municipal borders.