Forensic Architecture recently completed an exhaustive, highly detailled investigation titled “A Cartography of Genocide: Israel’s Conduct in Gaza Since October 2023” the report of which concludes with the following words: “The establishment of patterns out of a large multiplicity of individual acts allowed us to determine the extent to which the level of death and destruction inflicted across Gaza was organised.” [italics added]
In other words, this genocide has been carried out by design, and that of course is highly architectural. Or better-said: anti-architectural, since architecture is dedicated to the betterment of life; not its destruction (at least in theory). The 826 page FA Report (downloadable here) consists not only of hundreds of maps such as the one above (which, with its many red arrows, recalls the famous psychogeographic map of Paris by Guy Debord and Asger Jorn), but also collects disturbing statements made by witnesses, Israeli politicians and soldiers; as well as photographs and other kinds of evidence, all thoroughly backed up by sources.
FA has not only documented countless incidents of violence against women and children, journalists, aid workers, and other civilians, but has also analyzed these incidents to identify certain patterns. It is these patterns that reveal that the countless incidents are not haphazard, but systematic and therefore intentional. How ‘architectural’ is that?
The FA report is exhaustive and fastidious, precisely, I assume, because the subject matter is so disturbing and unbelievable, and because we live in an age in which facts are too often confounded with opinion, and lies are too often passed off and taken as truths. Research this thorough cannot be denied, and is the best antidote to the growing amounts of lies and propaganda we are being fed by much of the western media (in Israel itself, Haaretz is the only major news medium covering and denouncing Israeli atrocities in its pages).
Curiously, the work of Forensic Architecture is not covered much in architectural media. Archdaily, “the world’s most visited architectural platform,” has lots on FA, but curiously makes no mention of A Cartography of Genocide. Dezeen does although it avoids the use of the term ‘genocide’ in its headline.
But Forensic Architecture is by far not the only organization to conclude that what is happening in Gaza is genocide. See also, for example, the Amnesty International Report, or watch the video Yes, it’s Genocide by Led by Donkeys. FA is, however, the most ‘architectural’ organization to do so, even if what it investigtes and denounces is highly anti-architectural.
Criticalista 