Placemaking as a Tool of Social Sustainability: Scripts of Palestinian Resistance on the Israeli Segregation Wall

Dana Hasan, Sahera Bleibleh

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Under spatially oppressed contexts, quality of life becomes a privilege where life is barely guaranteed. Despite several studies discussing the aftermath of wars and military violence on the community's wellbeing and psychological health, the ongoing impact of any spatial violence remains unfolding. Exclusive of embedded human consequences, colonial power destructs physical and social spaces to strip people's sense of ownership, agency, and place. This research is exploring placemaking as a tool of social sustainability that people utilize to resist the ongoing spatial violence. Focusing on occupied Palestine context, this paper discusses the Israeli-built Segregation Wall as an urban violence performed to obstruct normality of Palestinian everyday life. As such, Palestinian graffiti movement expressed on the wall is explored as a creative practice of placemaking intended to resist the status quo and reclaim agency, restore their meaning of place, and achieve communal wellbeing. Based on the dynamics of everyday life expressed through ethnographic interviews, this paper concludes that graffiti on the Segregation Wall is an inseparable tactic of the Palestinian nonviolent resistance strategy and of their overall Sumood against the Israeli occupation. Doing so, this paper contributes to the overall understanding of the interrelations between theories of resistance, placemaking, and social sustainability.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationZEMCH 2021 - 8th Zero Energy Mass Custom Home International Conference, Proceedings
EditorsKheira Anissa Tabet Aoul, Mohammed Tariq Shafiq, Daniel Efurosibina Attoye
PublisherZEMCH Network
Pages674-682
Number of pages9
ISBN (Electronic)9789948310006
Publication statusPublished - 2021
Event8th Zero Energy Mass Custom Home International Conference, ZEMCH 2021 - Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Duration: Oct 26 2021Oct 28 2021

Publication series

NameZEMCH International Conference
ISSN (Electronic)2652-2926

Conference

Conference8th Zero Energy Mass Custom Home International Conference, ZEMCH 2021
Country/TerritoryUnited Arab Emirates
CityDubai
Period10/26/2110/28/21

Keywords

  • Agency
  • Graffiti
  • Palestine
  • Placemaking
  • Resistance
  • Social sustainability
  • Wellbeing

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Civil and Structural Engineering
  • Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
  • Building and Construction
  • Architecture
  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • Computer Science Applications

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