Save the Date: The first series of seminars on “Urbicide in Gaza and the Palestinian Experience”

Mada al-Carmel – The Arab Center for Applied Social Research is pleased to invite you to the first series of seminars organized through the project “Urbicide in Gaza: Spatial Violence, Reconstruction, and Resistance.”

The project starts with the concept of urbicide as a lens through which to understand the systematic destruction of the urban environment and its implications for social, political, and economic relations as a primary tool of colonial governance and control in the Palestinian context. While urbicide in Gaza is the central focus of the series, it is approached as part of a broader Palestinian experience of displacement, the disruption of urban life, and its reproduction via various forms of resistance and resilience.

• The first seminar will be held on January 29, 2026 at 17:00 (Jerusalem Time), titled “Urbicide in Palestine: A Sociological, Historical and Architectural Approach,” with the following speakers: Abaher El-Sakka, Abdullah Al Bayyari, Maha Samman, and Himmat Zoubi. 

• The second seminar will take place on February 12, 2026 at 17:00 (Jerusalem Time), on the subject of “Urbicide from the Site of Palestinian Refugee Camps,” featuring the following speakers: Khaldun Bishara, Sandi Hilal, Fatina Abreek-Zubiedat, and Ayham Dalal.

• The third seminar will be held on March 26, 2026 at 17:00 (Jerusalem Time), with the title “Urbicide in Palestinian Cities after the Nakba,” with the following speakers: Tawfiq Da’adli, Himmat Zoubi, Yara Sa’di-Ibraheem, and Orwa Switat.

The project will take place between January and June 2026, comprising a series of six virtual seminars, with details about the final three to be announced at a later date. The virtual seminars are open to the general public, and we particularly welcome researchers, urban planners, and activists with an interest in areas such as spatial violence, planning policies, mechanisms of reconstruction, the possibilities for justice-based recovery, memory, and community-based initiatives within the Palestinian context.

More details about each seminar will be published in the near future.

Interested persons are requested to register using this form.

This project is funded by the Urban Studies Foundation’s (USF) Seminar Series Awards for 2025.