Eyal Weizman (Eyal
Weizman is an architect, professor and director of the Forensic
Architecture (www.forensic-architecture.org) project at the Centre for
Research Architecture, Goldsmiths, University of London)
Sharon had grown to view the armed conflict with
the Palestinians as an urban problem, and the rapid expansion of
Palestinian cities and refugee camps as something that Israeli
occupation forces would later call "the jihad of building".
In 1970s he was given the task to "pacify"
resistance in the refugee camps of Gaza. Sharon ordered military
bulldozers to carve a grid of roads wide enough for tanks to be able to
drive through the dense fabric of three of Gaza's largest camps -
Jabalya, Rafah and Shati - destroying nearly one thousand homes. The new routes created smaller neighbourhoods, each of which could be isolated by infantry units.
Sharon's architecture involved not only destruction but also construction. The other major projects he undertook, besides the destruction of the camps, was an attempt to "pacify" the refugees by constructing and forcefully relocating a few thousand of them into Israeli-style social housing blocks next to major Palestinian cities. A few pilot projects were built north of Gaza, but these housing units themselves became centres of resistance. The project was abandoned and the housing largely since demolished in Israeli incursions.
Sharon's architecture involved not only destruction but also construction. The other major projects he undertook, besides the destruction of the camps, was an attempt to "pacify" the refugees by constructing and forcefully relocating a few thousand of them into Israeli-style social housing blocks next to major Palestinian cities. A few pilot projects were built north of Gaza, but these housing units themselves became centres of resistance. The project was abandoned and the housing largely since demolished in Israeli incursions.
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