planning for freedom:
envisioning repair in Gaza
a weekend of participatory workshops at MIT on:
design & architecture
socio-economic repair
legal strategies
mapping & data analysis
memory justice
Please consider joining us for a weekend of hands-on workshops, including talks, reflection, community-building, healing, counter-mapping and design exercises …and lots of strategizing!
Over three days, we hope to embody a participatory and proactive spirit that will be both generative during the time we have and serve as a model for the many such efforts that are needed in the future.
Workshops and talks will begin Friday, April 26th at 5pm and continue through Sunday, April 28th at 2pm.
We ask that participants plan to attend the entire event if possible. Capacity is limited so please register as soon as possible to confirm your spot.
April 26th - April 28th
planning for
freedom:
envisioning repair
in Gaza
MIT, Cambridge, MA
“Part of our resistance to the finality of genocide is for us to talk about tomorrow, plan for tomorrow, work on healing the wounds of our people. The aim of this war is that there would [be] no Palestinian tomorrow. We own tomorrow. Tomorrow is a Palestinian day.”- Ghassan Abu Sittah, April 7th, 2024, Twitter/X
workshop overview
Resisting the growing censorship and suppression of academic engagement with Palestine, this participatory workshop and reflective space recognizes the urgency of envisioning a democratic and liberatory future in Gaza for Gaza’s displaced residents. While we fully recognize that rebuilding before the cessation of the ongoing genocide is problematic, this student-organized workshop is an effort to utilize the tools and resources at our disposal and to acknowledge the role of of Architecture and Planning disciplines in perpetuating harm and subjugation. It also seeks to interrogate the possibilities (and limitations) of forward-looking restorative planning and design practices in service of justice.
Using a co-constructive participatory action approach that centers civilian Gazan voices and administrators managing the displacement, the workshop will draw on research and resources gathered directly from Rafah. By doing so, we not only hope to offer an educational event but one that upholds and draws directly on our training received as planners and designers seeking to cultivate a practice that is responsive, participatory, and grounded in real-world events. Student colleagues at MIT from Gaza (members of Palestine@MIT) have been instrumental in helping gather links, resources and research. These students have drawn our attention to the “Rebuilding Gaza: The Municipal Equipment Restoration Initiative (MERI) to Restore Essential Services for Sustainable Development” plan, recently drafted by the Union of Gaza Strip Municipalities, which the five workshops will be drawing on (see resources page). Given the participatory planning-for-the-margins approach, this workshop commits to being flexible and adaptive, taking primary input from Palestinian students, facilitators, and attendees.
We will also draw on faculty expertise within MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning in post-genocide repair to incorporate a comparative lens. This lens is an important strategy for understanding rebuilding after catastrophic destruction and mass starvation, injury, and death, as well as for building community and coalition across subjugated contexts. Cognizant of the constraints and coloniality of institutions and elite academia, and guarding against disaster exploitation, this workshop model reckons with difficult and complex questions. In particular, whether there is potential for design approaches and strategies that can be liberatory, within a bounded institutional framework, which nevertheless has concerned itself with promises for issues of space and justice. We will not shy away from these questions.
workshop goals
1.
Create education, awareness and dialogue about the modern history of the region, while outlining ways in which planning has been historically complicit in violence, as well as the forward-looking ways planning can be reparative and applied in service of justice
2.
Build close-knit community and network of concerned academics and students across geographies to continue sustained effort
3.
Communicate and keep alive an expectation that Gaza will be rebuilt for its displaced Palestinian residents
4.
Cultivate a sense of reflexivity of our own positionality and principles guiding our practice, and power-dynamics embedded within the exercise of thinking about reconstruction
5.
Produce an online archive on the topic of planning for freedom after occupation, war crimes, genocide, and other atrocities
values statement
In this workshop, we affirm that:
The Palestinian people, and all peoples and communities globally, have an inalienable right to self-determination and equal rights.
The achievement of self-determination and equal rights for Palestinians necessitates sovereignty, justice, and dignity for Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, the occupied territories starting in 1948 and the diaspora. From our position in the United States, we cannot and will not define what this means for Palestinians and Palestine. We commit to engaging on this topic in ways that are necessary and appropriate given our position.
We understand that ‘planning’ as a discipline and profession has often been wielded or implemented in ways that have served or furthered oppression and domination. We commit to the process of unlearning this impulse, and applying the tools of this field toward repair, justice, and the achievement of self-determination and justice for all peoples.
This workshop takes place within the context of immense – almost unfathomable – loss of life; destruction of livelihoods, community, society, and infrastructure; months-long halt to regular life and psychological strain for people in Palestine and across the world; and over a century of various forms of colonization, oppression, and discrimination. Recognizing this, we will approach these subjects with care, humanity, and self-awareness, while also committing to not ignoring the role of power – particularly power imbalances – and politics in shaping the situation.
All people deserve to be treated with dignity, and we will honor this in all of our engagement, work, and interactions during and around this workshop.
All life is sacred. In the context of this workshop and broader community struggles against gross injustices and oppressions, we must remember this and hold it close to us.
There is no place in this community or this workshop for discrimination, bigotry, and oppression of any kind. We reject the promotion of racism, national discrimination or chauvinism (particularly against historically-marginalized oppressed peoples), Islamophobia, antisemitism, male supremacy, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, or personal attacks. Furthermore, we commit to confronting any such behavior during the workshop, in order to make this a safe and generative environment.
Principled criticism of ourselves and others is essential for our growth and to show up in true solidarity. We will criticize and engage with ideas, thoughts, systems, and structures – not individuals or their emotions. There is certainly an important role for emotion in this work and conflict is an inherent aspect of human and natural life, but we commit to not allowing conflict to spill into harassment, abuse, or bullying.
We will honor both the letter of these values, as well as the spirit of this workshop and community.
code of conduct
All participants will be expected comply with the MIT code of conduct, as well as the following workshop norms:
Values agreement. Respect of values statement and any specific requirements of an individual workshop session or directions of organizers and workshop leads.
Active participation and intentional presence. Participation looks different for everyone, and there is room for everyone willing to engage and learn more in good faith. For some that leans more toward learning and processing, for some action care for the community; we all have a role to play but we must commit to being present and contributing to this collective effort.
Reduction of outside distractions. Limited use of phones, social media, and other external communication devices/platforms during workshop sessions. While we recognize that we all have other responsibilities, we encourage everyone to do their best to be present in the space and focus their energies toward the work at hand.
Disruption and intimidation. Behavior intended to disrespect people or communities, intimidate participants or organizers, or disrupt or derail this important work will not be tolerated. In certain circumstances, where behavior threatens the safety (physical and psychological) of the participants/community or the integrity of the event, person(s) exhibiting disruptive behavior may be asked to leave immediately or be removed, subject to organizers and security personnel.
Self-awareness. By engaging in this event, all participants consent that they will remove themselves or agree to be removed from the space (temporarily or for the remainder of the event) if they are unable to abide by these values and code of conduct.
Collaborative and generative spirit. This workshop is about envisioning repair and planning for freedom, so to the best of our abilities, we will show up ready to work with others and with a spirit of generative and meaningful action in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
We are all human beings, and none of us is perfect, so grace will be extended throughout the workshop as we all strive to fulfill the aspirations of the value statement and code of conduct. At times, as both individuals and a community, we will inevitably fall short. Nonetheless, we will keep ourselves and this emerging community accountable to these values and this conduct.
We look forward to a generative, powerful, and connective workshop and weekend.
April 26th - Sunday, April 28th
planning for freedom: envisioning repair in Gaza
MIT, Cambridge, MA
partners and sponsors
MIT Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture (AKPIA)
MIT Global Health and Medical Humanities Initiative (GHMHI)
DUSP Displacement Research Action Network (DRAN)
DUSP City Design and Development
DUSP Bemis
DUSP International Development Group
DUSP Housing Community and Economic Development
Palestine @ MIT
MIT CSF, MIT MSA, MIT Mobin, MIT Mipsterz
MIT Jews for Ceasefire