On Urbanism and Activism in Palestinian Refugee Camps : The Reconstruction of Nahr el Bared

Generally this research aims to elaborate practical knowledge that can be useful for urban professionals who are interested in instigating change or activists who are interested in capitalizing on their professional knowledge - within extra-ordinary conditions (camps, war, colonialism etc.)  Although the immediate knowledge produced in this work is fundamentally centered on the particularities of Palestinian camps - it might be useful in some other conditions of exceptionality that are governed by extreme forms of oppression, war, military occupation and authoritarian regimes.

The central question of this dissertation rotates around the dilemma of negotiating professional urbanist and political activist roles - within the context of Palestinian camps. It aims to illustrate the methods, potentials and limitations of this kind of practice. The research attempts to develop a theory of activist-urbanist practice within Palestinian camps based on 3 main lines of investigation.

The first is centered on a reflection of the researcher’s personal experiences as an activist-urbanist. These experiences, cover his engagement in various Palestinian camps in the Middle-east and a variety of 'extra-ordinary' conditions within Post-war Lebanon. To reflect on these experiences various literature was explored on the subjects of political activism, ‘activist-professionals’ and various forms of 'movements'. This line of investigation attempts to explore and understand the various histories of activist-professional experiences in opposing what they considered as unjust structures of power and authority, while also seeking to personally investigate new possibilities for an activist practice within the professions of urbanism. 

The second line of investigation is both theoretical and historical. It is concerned with situating Palestinian camps within the discourses of urbanism.  It attempts to chart the history of urban projects within the context of Palestinian camps – particularly in relation to different forms of activism that evolved in these places. It also seeks to understand the very ‘illusive’ nature of Palestinian camps as a very particular form of camp and ‘extra-ordinary’ condition. 

The third line of investigation revolves around the primary case-study of this research, the Palestinian camp of Nahr el bared. This camp, which is located in Northern Lebanon, was destroyed in 2007 during a battle between the Lebanese army and a fundamentalist Islamist militia. The research elaborates and reflects on the story of social mobilization, designing, planning and reconstructing Nahr el Bared camp through the different stages that this project has went through between the summer of 2007 and 2013.

It is at the intersection of these three lines of research –– that the theory of an activist-urbanist practice within Palestinian camps is eventually proposed. The dissertation identifies that that there are three types of conditions that can potentially host such a practice. These are the projects of Reconstruction, Camp Improvement and Return - which are inspired from the resistance, political activism and every-day practices of Palestinian refugees over their past 66 year history. These practices are an inspiration for a rich variety of Palestinian productions where it also has been historically quite apparent that on their own, each of these projects are limited     in constituting a counter-planning or liberation strategy. If anything, the history of Palestinian camps demonstrates very clearly how the projects of reconstruction, improvement and return have always been fundamentally inter-related in the political consciousness of the refugees. Transcending these projects, inter-relating their different tools and transgressing the isolated spaces and structures that host different forms of Palestinian resistance becomes a fundamental objective for any activist-urbanist practice in this context.