Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation

By Eyal Weizman

Acclaimed exploration of the political space created by Israel’s colonial occupation

This new edition of the classic work on the politics of architecture—and the architecture of politics—appears on the fiftieth anniversary of the Six-Day War, which expanded Israel’s domination over Palestinian lands.

From the tunnels of Gaza to the militarized airspace of the Occupied Territories, Eyal Weizman unravels Israel’s mechanisms of control and its transformation of Palestinian homes into a war zone under constant surveillance. This is essential reading for those seeking to understand how architecture and infrastructure are used as lethal weapons in the formation of Israel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9781844679157

Eyal Weizman

Eyal Weizman is Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he directs the Centre for Research Architecture and the European Research Council funded project Forensic Architecture. He is also a founder member of the collective Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency (DAAR) in Bethlehem, Palestine. He is the author of Hollow Land, The Least of All Possible Evils, and co-editor of A Civilian Occupation. He lives in London.

Reviews for Hollow Land

[archidose-991096 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Realizing a deficiency in my knowledge about the Israel-Palestine conflict, I purchased this book on the military urbanism of the area. Clearly Weizman is against the occupation, something he states early in the book, and something that is apparent throughout the book. While this immediately makes the book something many people will outright dismiss, his ability to discern and elucidate the myriad ways that the Isreali military has created fortifications, settlements and walls, and has conflicted with the Palestinians at checkpoints, through the air and literally walking through walls is phenomenal. The book gets more fascinating (and in many ways more surreal) the further one delves into it; from the choice of stone in Jerusalem to the use of mirrors in checkpoints and to the use of drones over occupied space, the book intelligently links architecture, politics and the military.