Gaza Statement
Against the nonsense that there's anything remotely 'symmetrical' in this massacre: this, in the Guardian today.
posted by owen hatherley at 11:40 am
Friday, January 16, 2009
indefinite suspension
posted by owen hatherley at 11:40 am
8 Comments:
so if someone continues shooting missiles at you every day what would you do?
as for "proportional response:
http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=29236
Owen: Great blog. Your architectural commentary is quickly making this one of my favorite sites. But, as a new fan, may I politely say that the Israel/Palestine commentary does not impress us?
Sincerely, New fan
Naturally, 'new fan', my 'Israel-Palestine commentary' is not extensive here (this is more so), but the 'what would you do if someone was firing rockets in your backyard' argument is staggeringly infantile, and only makes any sense if one has an extremely selective grasp of history - let's recall who broke the ceasefire, provoking said rockets, who occupies the West Bank and blockades and controls the infrastructure of Gaza, not to mention who ethnically cleansed said 'backyard' in the first place.
Owen: I read the piece. It's a good piece, informative history, not blistering....Here is another thought: I would really like to see architecture writers interested in Israel/Palestine identify or support a palestinian architecture writer; I like your piece. I like E. Weizmmann's writing also. But it is getting a bit odd to watch writers in the comfort of London discuss these issues without the corresponding architectural voice from Palestine-proper or from a Palestinian. It will be sad for me if all of the interesting work discussing the architectural inequities of the Israel/Palestine drama simply advances the ideas and careers of those at its geographical and cultural peripheries.
Quite so - when writing that piece I was very careful to write it through Israeli voices of various kinds, for partly tactical reasons - so the Palestinians really only factor in there as being on the receiving end, which is obviously an injustice.
Here is a short piece by Weizman on an interesting Palestinian architect he's worked with for the Venice Biennale:
http://abitare.it/uncategorized/sandi-hilal/
Belated reply: asking what you would do is not infantile. It is a serious question: what would you do instead that's a better alternative?
These people did not have many good choices.
If you insist - I would press my government to end the blockade and the occupation. As a few people in Sderot have done. As even in from a completely self-interested angle, the rocket attacks actually increased after the Gaza bombardment (although the death toll of 12 compared to 1200 should still be noted here). They're not making anyone safe.
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