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Interview with Eyal Weizman

Professor at Goldsmiths, University of London, Director of the Centre for Research Architecture and Director of Forensic Architecture*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2017

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Abstract

Contemporary warfare is increasingly waged in urban settings and is often characterized by asymmetry between the parties. This trend is only likely to continue in light of a more and more urbanized world. It is compounded by the fact that belligerents often avoid facing their enemies in the open, intermingling instead with the civilian population, putting civilian lives and infrastructure at risk.

Eyal Weizman is an architect and academic who has spent much of his career writing and thinking about the interaction of violence and the built environment. He has worked extensively on the ways in which war is fought in built-up areas and on how architecture can design an environment that is either more or less conducive to urban warfare. Most recently, he has been developing the new field of forensic architecture, which aims to research incidents that unfold in urban areas, examine the architectural aspects involved and draw patterns from those stories. In this interview, Professor Weizman shares some of his reflections on war in cities with the Review.

Keywords

urban warfareforensic architecturethe built environmentcities
Type
Voices and perspectives
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 98 , Issue 901: War in cities , April 2016 , pp. 21 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © icrc 2017 

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References

* This interview was conducted in London on 5 September 2016 by Vincent Bernard, Editor-in-Chief, and Ellen Policinski, Managing Editor of the Review.

1 B'Tselem, Land Grab: Israel's Settlement Policy in the West Bank, report, May 2002, available at: www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/200205_land_grab (all internet references were accessed in December 2016).

2 Editor's note: Forensic Architecture is a research agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London. You can learn more about the Forensic Architecture project on its website, available at: www.forensic-architecture.org.

3 See Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture, Saydnaya: Inside a Syrian Torture Prison, available at: https://saydnaya.amnesty.org/.

4 See Forensic Architecture, Nakba Day Killings, available at: www.forensic-architecture.org/case/nakba-day-killngs/.

5 See Forensic Architecture, Drone Strikes: Investigating Covert Operations through Spatial Media, available at: http://wherethedronesstrike.com and http://www.forensic-architecture.org/case/drone-strikes/.

6 For more information on this incident, see Jason Burke, Julian Borger and Paul Lewis, “Israel Bombards Rafah after Soldier Disappears amid Gaza Ceasefire Collapse”, The Guardian, 1 August 2014, available at: www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/01/israel-bombards-rafah-soldier-disappears-gaza-ceasefire-collapse. For more information on the Hannibal Directive, see Judah Ari Gross, “Israeli Army Cancels Controversial Hannibal Protocol”, The Times of Israel, 28 June 2016, available at: www.timesofisrael.com/idf-chief-puts-an-end-to-contentious-hannibal-protocol/.

7 See Forensic Architecture, Rafah: Black Friday, available at: www.forensic-architecture.org/case/rafah-black-friday/.

8 See Forensic Architecture, Guatemala: Operacion Sofia, available at: www.forensic-architecture.org/case/guatemala-operacion-sofia/.

9 See Derek Gregory, The Colonial Present, Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA, 2004.

10 Foucault, Michel, Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977–1978, Picador/Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2009, p. 33 ffGoogle Scholar.

11 Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic and Center for Civilians in Conflict, The Civilian Impact of Drones: Unexamined Costs, Unanswered Questions, report, 2012, pp. 8–9, available at: http://civiliansinconflict.org/uploads/files/publications/The_Civilian_Impact_of_Drones_w_cover.pdf.

12 For more on the practice of signature strikes, see Kevin Jon Heller, “‘One Hell of a Killing Machine’: Signature Strikes and International Law”, Journal of International Criminal Justice, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2013, available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2169089.

13 PATTRN is available at: http://pattrn.co/.

14 See FSBRG, “ICC Gaza Methods and Findings, Presentation at the International Criminal Court”, available at: https://fsbrg.net/icc-gaza-methods-findings.

15 See Forensic Architecture, The Left-to-Die-Boat, available at: www.forensic-architecture.org/case/left-die-boat/.