We, Architects For Gaza, as architects, educators, planners, environmentalists and designers, condemn the ongoing urbicidal and multiscalar violence enacted on Gaza and its people.
The people of Gaza have the right to engage in a reconstruction process where they are key participants in decision making. Gaza deserves innovative solutions, incorporating social and cultural processes that bring tangible and intangible benefits, including rebuilding cultural heritage, memories and their traces from the past into a future urban imaginary.
The “one-size-fits-all” and architectural real estate propositions that external bodies aim to impose on Gaza must be resisted, reviewed and critically assessed, ensuring that Gazans play a central role in the design, reconstruction and decision-making process.
AFG stresses the right of the people of Gaza to a city, to a home and to their land. They have the right to rebuild their lives within a free Palestine. They have the immediate and inalienable right to return to Gaza, to be able to access medical care, housing, and infrastructure. In the longer term, entire urban areas, infrastructure, houses, and neighbourhoods will have to be reconstructed including the provision of all the services and facilities required for an environmentally sustainable and high quality life.
Building on the words of our local partner, the Mayor of Gaza: “…to turn a disaster into an opportunity, we want to challenge the image of destruction that is imposed on the land by bringing back the life, culture and social practices that characterise the coastal terrain of Gaza.”
Through engaging in specific and concrete solutions with people on the ground and professionals from around the world, we know that there is a future for reconstruction on the ground by and with Palestinians for Gaza. We request that built environment professionals join our endeavours to show the way forward for the reconstruction of a socially just and environmentally responsible future for Gaza.
We aim to state clearly that:
- There must be an end to the siege in Gaza and access to humanitarian aid and all of the materials required for people to reconstruct their homes.
- All restrictions on food, electricity, materials, fuel and construction equipment to be lifted.
- Palestinians have the right to rebuild their homes, neighbourhoods, schools and hospitals and the right to be key members in the process of decision making.
- Immediate access to Gaza should be provided to professionals, experts and helpers – including AFG. We must be allowed to enter Gaza and to be part of self-help initiatives to allow for reconstruction in partnership with Gazan residents and institutions.
- The municipality and local community must be empowered through creating multiple platforms to engage and share ideas that can facilitate and realise their projects.
- Professionals and media outlets, including those of architecture, design and construction, must make space for and amplify Gazan voices and challenge the mental erasure and normalisation of the current colonial narrative.
AFG is a collective network of volunteers; architects, planners, academics and professionals from the built environment, located in Palestine and from across the globe. Drawing on a wide range of professional international perspectives and expertise, we work closely with Gaza City’s municipality and other partners and institutions in Gaza to address solutions for reconstruction, both urgent and long-term.