Rebuilding Gaza by Nadi Abusaada

• Amid the harrowing scenes of carnage, finding adequate words becomes an onerous task. Historians of the built and lived environment in Palestine often find ourselves bound to document destruction rather than construction. There are other histories to narrate about our cities, additional stories waiting to be told. Yet, with the relentless Israeli colonial violence against our land and people, the pace of erasure surpasses that of history writing. The bulldozer is faster than the pen.
• In the face of rampant obliteration, terms lose their meaning; language falters in conveying the depth and essence of the horrors witnessed. Architects, planners and sociologists have long grappled with terms like urbicide, domicide and cultural genocide. However, these terms are unable to capture the rapidity and gravity of the unfolding atrocities. Their totalising nature proves incapable of accounting for how the destruction is felt and experienced daily.