On Wednesday, 8 May 2024, Birzeit University Museum held a public conversation titled “Unpacking the Violent Tools of Settler Colonialism: Methodology of Forensic Architecture in Palestine” with the with the Forensic Architecture Investigation Unit at al Haq (FAI Unit). The researchers in the FAI Unit spoke about their work over the long course of ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people and the land of Palestine. Focusing the discussion mainly around several locations in the Gaza Strip, the team shared their thoughts and methods in documenting a genocide. Their work of covering and uncovering settler colonial violence in Gaza over the course of the past seven months is a part of understanding the ongoing Nakba in and on Palestine.
As they explained, the Forensic Architecture Investigation Unit in al Haq employs forensic architecture’s established methodologies and techniques for monitoring and documenting violations against Palestinians for the purposes of legal accountability and public advocacy. As such, the FAI Unit aims to produce a new generation of visual investigations led by Palestinians.
In this lively discussion, the FAI Unit shared the process and practice of their current work by showing the methodological intricacies as they apply them in several locations they have and continue to investigate both in Gaza and in the West Bank. Along with an open discussion with the audience, they explored the contradictions and difficulties involved in documenting settler violence both in terms of how we think about violence as well how we approach our own notions of sovereignty.
This event is part of Birzeit University’s Hakawi programming for the Spring semester of the current academic year.
