Bare Life, Bare Architecture: Deconstructing the Violence of Architecture in Al-Khalil, Palestine

The political philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s concept of the state of exception has been
used heavily to elaborate on the juridical, geographical, and sociological understandings of
Palestinian life, whether in relation to refugee camps (Ramadan, 2013), the occupied West Bank
(Boano & Leclair-Paquet, 2014), or Palestinian martyrdom (Whitehead & Abufarha, 2008).
More recently, there has been much discussion surrounding the consideration of space (Hanafi,
2009) and the role of infrastructural warfare in the necropolitical power of the Israeli occupation
(Mbembe, 2003, p. 29). However, in analyzing movement, arrangement, and tracking of
Palestinian bodies controlled by the Israeli state, it is necessary to look on the level of the built
environment, or the architecture on the geography.

by Yuka Sugino

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