Towards a Post-Apartheid Palestine: Atlas of the Israeli Settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem - THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE
▻https://thefunambulist.net/architectural-projects/towards-a-post-apartheid-palestine-atlas-of-the-israeli-settlements-
Towards a Post-Apartheid Palestine: Atlas of the Israeli Settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem | THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE
►http://thefunambulist.net/2016/01/22/towards-a-post-apartheid-palestine-atlas-of-the-israeli-settlements-
Towards a Post-Apartheid Palestine: Atlas of the Israeli Settlements in the West Bank and East JerusalemJanuary 22, 2016
Architecture & Design / Cartography / History / Law - By: Léopold Lambert
If I had composed this Atlas of the Israeli Settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem a few years ago, I would have insisted that this inventory of colonial urban typologies constituted an evidence of the Israeli violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, I would have reminded the history of the invasion of the West Bank and East Jerusalem (as well as the Gaza Strip, the Sinai and the Golan Heights) in 1967 and the military rule that subjugated and continues to subjugate the Palestinian bodies since then, I would have referred to these colonized territories as “Palestinian land as recognized by the International Community,” etc. This is however not what I am going to do here, because I am convinced that this narrative and the imaginary it conveys is ultimately harmful to all Palestinians and, for the same reasons, to non-Zionist Israelis too. On the contrary (or, rather, in an apparent contradiction), I would like to undertake the rather perilous exercise of praising the Israeli settlements for the scenario of the post-apartheid future they accidentally allow.
Towards a Post-Apartheid Palestine: Atlas of the Israeli Settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem | THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE
►http://thefunambulist.net/2016/01/22/towards-a-post-apartheid-palestine-atlas-of-the-israeli-settlements-
If I had composed this Atlas of the Israeli Settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem a few years ago, I would have insisted that this inventory of colonial urban typologies constituted an evidence of the Israeli violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, I would have reminded the history of the invasion of the West Bank and East Jerusalem (as well as the Gaza Strip, the Sinai and the Golan Heights) in 1967 and the military rule that subjugated and continues to subjugated the Palestinian bodies since then, I would have refer to these colonized territories as “Palestinian land as recognized by the International Community,” etc. This is however not what I am going to do here, because I am convinced that this narrative and the imaginary it conveys is ultimately harmful to all Palestinians and, for the same reasons, to non-Zionist Israelis too. On the contrary (or, rather, in an apparent contradiction), I would like to undertake the rather perilous exercise of praising the Israeli settlements for the scenario of the post-apartheid future they accidentally allow.
Of course, this praise of the settlements could not be more independent from the politics that lead to their construction, their current apartheid function, as well as the militarized urban typology they constitute. The displacement of a part of the Israeli civil population, whether enacted by the government or retroactively legitimized by it, is part of a strategy of the fait accompli: occupying the invaded land with a civil infrastructure and population that make the withdrawal of the occupying army difficult and complicated. I wrote many times about the way the settlements and their (approximately) 750,000 inhabitants are currently organized at a territorial scale: the apartheid wall built in the beginning of the 2000s by the Sharon administration integrates an important amount of settlements on its Western side (see past map from my book, Weaponized Architecture), many of others are linked to the Western side of the wall by small highways, some of which are only allowed to cars with an Israeli (yellow) plate — these roads are punctuated by military checkpoints that ensure to maximize the Israeli movement while slowing down, if not stopping, the Palestinian one (see the recent visualization of such inequality created by Al Jazeera). As for the settlements’ urbanism, their spatial formation (both urbanistically and topographically), their architecture, as well as their fenced periphery make them redoubtable militarized instruments, despite an aesthetic of Western suburbs, as Eyal Weizman demonstrated in his successive collaborations with Rafi Segal (A Civilian Occupation) and Sandi Hilal & Alessandro Petti (Decolonizing Architecture).
Is Ice Melt Altering NG Maps ?
▻http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/140609-arctic-ice-maps
June 9, 2014---National Geographic’s soon-to-be-published Atlas of the World, tenth edition, will show the most dramatic change in Arctic ice since the 1963 publication of the first edition.
For more about the National Geographic Atlas of the World and how the shrinking Arctic is changing part of its look, read Shrinking Arctic Ice Prompts Drastic Change in National
Atlas Cartographie Est-ce toujours pertinent de publier des atlas ?
Excellente analyse signalée par Alain Gresh
THE DAILY STAR : : Culture : : Books
Atlas-maker embraces the world, again
July 07, 2012
By Wassim Mroueh
►http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Books/2012/Jul-07/179639-atlas-maker-embraces-the-world-again.ashx#axzz204KyJpLo
In the 20th century, the atlas was one of the cornerstones of learning. In the age before television had anything to do with satellites, before there was an Internet to blossom with (both reliable and dubious) information about the universe – before, in short, the village went global – the atlas was a principal means of finding out about a world you couldn’t see.
Yet there are some who believe the book industry can still provide a comprehensive and useful reading of the earth’s geography in its various aspects.
Witness “The Student’s Picture Atlas,” published in Arabic by Little’s Library. Running less than 300 pages, this book is made up of three chapters. The first touches on the solar system and its planets, including the earth. It provides detailed information on our planet, in terms of tectonic, economic and geographical changes, resources, seasons and the types of plants and animals existing in the various climates of its surface.