Starting at al ‘Arub refugee camp in the West Bank and moving between the territories Israel occupied in 1948 and in 1967 as well as the Palestinian refugee camps, we see a geography unfold which remains prone to rupture and transformation. Hashem Abushama adresses the significance of understanding the multiple Palestinian geographies and how it is a map without guarantees: where there is neither a guarantee that settler colonialism’s intent to eliminate the Palestinians will succeed, nor a guarantee that Palestinians will take up a particular form of resistance. This already constitutes a socio-spatial practice that pays attention to rehearsals of Palestinian return in a context of genocidal violence and dispossession.  

But aren’t the production and erasure of maps part of the very same systems of power and exploitation? Why do alternative maps or counter maps matter? After his talk, Hashem Abushama will be joined in conversation by Annelys de Vet, Chiara de Cesari and Eleri Connick to discuss these questions and practices of resistance.