2025 Workshop

Orwa Switat

Religion and Public Life Fellow in Conflict and Peace, Harvard University

Palestinian Urban Steadfastness, Regeneration, and Insurgency 
The Case of Haifa  

The steadfastness of Palestinians in their homeland following the 1948 Nakba is  characterized by their revival and struggles in historically dispossessed cities. Notably, there  exists a significant gap in Palestinian studies regarding the spatial evolution of Indigenous urban  resilience, revival, and resistance amid ongoing dispossession and urbicide. This study addresses  this gap by exploring how displaced heritage, along with remaining cultural and religious  historical spaces, shapes Indigenous resilience, steadfastness, regeneration, and insurgency, with  a specific focus on Haifa City. 

This research combines innovative digital mapping and visualization techniques with  geospatial and discourse analysis to examine the discursive spatiality of historical urbicide,  continuous dispossession, and Indigenous resilience and resistance. The objective is to illustrate  the impacts of urbicide and the steadfastness of Palestinians in Haifa by integrating digital,  visual, and geospatial methods with big data analysis, archival documents, aerial images, maps,  and discourse analysis based on oral histories and in-depth interviews with planners, activists,  and displaced Palestinians. 

The data collection framework utilizes digitization and visualization across four spatial  categories: 1) Real-Physical Space: The spatial form and evolution of cultural and religious sites,  as well as Haifa's historical heritage since its establishment in 1761. 2) Perceived Space: The  memories, emotions, and narratives of displaced and steadfast communities. 3) Lived Space: The  actual spatial practices and daily lives surrounding these cultural spaces. 4) Urbicide: The  ongoing destruction and spatial violence associated with dispossession. 

Findings indicate that despite the Nakba and subsequent urbicide—which resulted in the  dispossession of over 70,000 Palestinians and the destruction of more than 40% of Haifa's  historic city—the Palestinians in Haifa have reconstituted their identity around the remnants of  their displaced heritage and the preservation of cultural and religious spaces. This steadfastness  has thrived amid ongoing displacement, ghettoization, and the destruction of Palestinian heritage,  facilitated by state policies and neoliberal real estate projects from the 1950s onward. 

Furthermore, this study reveals that Palestinians have resisted displacement by reclaiming  their historical heritage and defending confiscated religious spaces. The physical remnants of the  demolished city have shaped counter-narratives and insurgencies grounded in oral histories,  memories, and a decolonial vision of restorative spatial realities. The interplay between these  historical remnants and Palestinian practices and narratives has cultivated the resilience and  survival of the city’s Indigenous identity. 

Ultimately, this research emphasizes that the remnants of destroyed cultural spaces and  the ongoing reimagination of restorative urban realities profoundly influence Indigenous revival, 

resilience, and resistance. It underscores the significance of illuminating Palestinian urban  steadfastness and regeneration, reinforcing the need for reparative practices in urban planning. Furthermore, insights from this research can inform strategies to address today's ongoing  genocide and urbicide in the Gaza Strip and West Bank and the challenges faced by those  enduring similar experiences.

Orwa Switat is an urban planning scholar, practitioner, and activist with degrees in philosophy, political science, and urban and regional planning, focusing on state-minority relations in planning and the status of groups in cities. Since September 2023, Switat has been a visiting scholar at the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. Furthermore, from 2019 to 2023, Switat was a member of Haifa's municipal committee for historical building preservation. There, he steered policies to embrace the city’s historical heritage, focusing on the Palestinian historical neighborhoods.