A Passage from a Diary of Echoes

p 16, Alexandra Sophia Handal
Jerusalem and Bethlehem are sister cities that have historically shared close-knit social, economic and cultural ties. In 1948, when Zionist forces ethnically cleansed the western quarters of Jerusalem and its hinterland from their Palestinian Arab population, this had concrete consequences for...

Walking on Ruins: The Untold Story of Yalu

p 22, Ulla Mundinger
In June 2017, Yalu will observe its anniversary of 50 years of extinction. The Palestinian village has a long history to tell. A history of forced transformation and oblivion, of applying thick layers of trimmed present on the remaining shreds of the past. Since its expulsion in 1967and the...

Who Was Spyro Houris?

p 28, Adina Hoffman
During the summer of 2014, Adina Hoffman set out through the streets of Jerusalem in search of an elusive British Mandate-era architect named Spyro Houris. In this excerpt from her book, Till We Have Built Jerusalem , she recounts aspects of her quest to discover who this “most outstanding Arab...

Al-Assi Cinema Studio: Glorious Past and Pale Present

p 43, Zahraa Zawawi, Mohammad Abu Hammad
In the history of Arabic literature, poets stood on the relics (Atlal) of their lovers’ residency areas, recalled love memories and paid tributes to them in their poem. Al-Assi Cinema is considered a (Tallal); a space that remained. Since more than a decade, it has been left for forgetfulness and...

Construction, Destruction, and the In-Between: al-Na‘ama Flourmill, Nablus

p 56, Shaden Awad, Manal Bishawi
Al Naameh Flour Mill characterizes an exceptional instance in the manufacturing movement in Nablus. Its establishment is linked to the modernity project that the city witnessed between WWI and WWII. The mill journey from its inception to its annihilation reflects the transformations in the power...

The Ottoman Saraya: All That Did Not Remain

p 66, Khaldun Bshara
"All that did not remain” is about the Ottoman saraya (regional government headquarters of mid and late Ottoman era in Palestine) that disappeared from the physical landscapes of urban centers in Palestine. The essay poses a methodological question about how can we think about material culture that...