What is ISSRAR?
ISSRAR is an international research project focused on understanding young Palestinian’s responses to house demolitions and how these responses impact on their ability to cope with violence, maintain dignity and build sustainable development for Palestinians.
The research began in 2018 and aims to understand and explore young Palestinians’ everyday, informal and cultural responses to demolitions.
Why focus on youth and house demolitions?
The contemporary period of Israel’s occupation of Palestine is marked by house demolition as a form of collective punishment and means to further land sequestration. Destruction of Palestinian houses to make way for the expansion of Israeli territories, however, has a long history. Since 1948, the prospective and material loss of home has been central to Israel’s control over Palestinian place and people. Palestinians can find themselves in positions of great precarity where memories, experiences and threats of violence and demolition over long periods create fear and anxiety around the future loss of home.
How will we achieve our objectives?
To actively engage young people in our research process whilst addressing policy makers and NGOs, we use an interdisciplinary participatory methodology. This approach builds on research that identifies aesthetic, embodied and cultural meaning in the coping strategies of young Palestinian’s and how fear can facilitate narratives of hope despite denial of agency and citizenship.
This interdisciplinary research mixes qualitative, visual and material-oriented approaches grounded in design anthropology, using cultural probes and creative kits.
Young Palestinians' Responses to House Demolitions 