Body & Life Cover

In Jerusalem, Israel’s planning apparatus oppresses the economic, social and residential development of Palestinians in the Old City (who aren’t considered as citizens) through power use and knowledge production mechanisms. Through archeologic conservation of the ancient water system, surveillance of movement, and expansion of the settlements, Israel produces a national imagination, knowledge which determines the possible spatial practices, and historical knowledge erasing the natives’ past and forcing Palestinians’ displacement from their places of livelihood. The intervention, which is rooted in local knowledge, proposes a discontinuous urban infrastructure that reuses the inaccessible cisterns, re-creates water management autonomy, and a collective textile-production industry; thus securing natives’ future economic independence and quenching their thirst.