Using Architecture to Dominate
Video by Al Jazeera: Eyal Weizman explains architecture’s key role in the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the evolution of urban warfare
Israel is interested in the Palestinian land, and they plan to annex it using various strategies. One of which is architecture. In this post, I’ll explain some strategies used by them and showcase different medias as examples. Just like other posts of this blog, I will explain and show the power dynamics of occupiers and the host through architecture.
For Israel, to succeed in their plan of occupying more Palestinian territories, they need more Israeli citizens to move to the new settlements. For this, in Israel, they target two types of people. One kind are the people who would love having lower tasks and spacious luxurious homes, the other are conservative zionist jews who believe that this is a promised land for them. Being close to the holy site of Jerusalem is an achievement for them. The Israeli govt. created the settlement houses to look like Jerusalem, but not with real stones, the structure is made with concrete but given the look and feel of stone by designing and shaping the outer layer of concrete in a particular way, to mimic the authentic Jerusalem stone.
The settler houses are built in a way to give them maximum visibility over Palestinian lands to establish the sense of superiority, combined with red rooftops and higher ground, this proves to be efficient. The Israeli govt. made it mandatory for settler homes to have red rooftops; making it easier for military jet aircrafts to navigate around the city and learn which is an Israeli settlement and which is not.
To further control, Israeli creates difference in the movement speed by building certain roads in strategic places Israeli only, and giving Palestinians longer routes and frequent temporary roadblocks and checkpoints. Sometimes, the checkpoint gates are so narrow to degrade people with larger bodies and reduce the speed on movement. They can deny anyone the right to cross and people crossing are constantly yelled
