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A Civilian Occupation The Politics of Israeli Architecture Edited by Rafi Segal and Eyal Weizman  Published by Babel Publishers, Israel, 2003 “THE GREAT revolution is not over yet. We must shape the character of the state of Israel and prepare it to fulfil its historical mission,” wrote David Ben-Gurion in 1949 in `The War Diary'. Censored last year by the Association of Israeli Architects, `A Civilian Occupation' sheds light on the role played by Israeli architecture in both the politics and practices of occupation. The book is made up of articles by 19 Israeli architects, scholars, journalists and photographers, including Daniel Bauer, Meron Benvenisti, Zvi Efrat, Kenneth Frampton, Nadav Harel, Miki Kratsman, Milutin Labudovic, Gideon Levy, Ilan Potash, Sharon Rotbard, Efrat Shvily, Michael Sorkin, Eran Tamir-Tawil, Paul Virilio, Pavel Wolberg, Oren Yiftachel, in addition to Eyal Weizman and Rafi Segal. All the essays discuss and analyse the responsibility of architecture in the Middle East conflict. They are arranged chronologically, each one covering a particular chapter in the history of Israeli architecture and planning, from the pre-state days of Zionism, the period of early state planning and building, to the colonisation of the West Bank and Gaza by a series of Israeli governments. Weizman and Segal, both Israeli architects based in Tel Aviv, reveal how central Israeli architecture has been to build a national home for the Jewish people in the land of Israel. They explain that since 1930s to the present, Israeli architecture worked hard to achieve the Zionist dream — to establish their home in “their land”. The writers, who established their architectural practice to combine architectural projects with research and writing, argue that “planning decisions do not often follow criteria of economic sustainability, ecology or efficiency of services; rather, they are employed to serve strategic and political agendas. “Space becomes the physical embodiment of a matrix of forces, manifested across the landscape in the construction of roads, hilltop settlements, development towns and garden suburbs,” explain the authors. Segal and Weizman raise the question of responsibility. They blame architects more than the settlers themselves. They point out that particular architectural plans, such as the placement of settlements on mountaintops, were set up not only to symbolise Israeli dominance of the Palestinian farmers who occupy the valleys. Titled `To start a city from Scratch', Eran Tawil's interview was conducted with Thoms Leitersdorf, who heads a leading architectural and town-planning practice in Tel Aviv. The interview, according to Tawil, illustrates that professional considerations have to deal with the political objectives of the state, as well as with the security and social realities in the West Bank. “The strategy in Judea and Samaria was to capture ground: You capture as much area as possible by placing few people on numerous hills,” says Leitersdorf who designed two cities in the West Bank, Maale Adumim and Emanuel. The book comprises several maps of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. It also includes different kind of photos: Historical ones, aerial taken as a part of Peace Now campaign to record the establishment and expansion of illegal outpost settlements in the West Bank and those that show settlements as ghost town. The authors describe the third kind of photos, which were taken in 1993, as “chilling testimony to the fact that so much of the construction on the West Bank is not market based but state directed; hence, so many homes there remain empty.” Columnist and former deputy mayor of Jerusalem Meron Benvenisti writes in his article `In the morning after' that those who built the settlements presumed that the Palestinian would remain forever “submissive and obsequious”. “When the error became apparent, and the Palestinians began to rebel, the inevitable countdown towards the eviction of the arrogant settlements upon the hilltop commenced,” concluded Benvenisti. The book can be found at Bustan Lil Kutob bookstore in Shmeisani. Hada Sarhan Monday, January 19, 2004 |