Wall in Battir: a Segment of the Israeli Separation Barrier

Audio&visual, Forensic Architecture, Middle Density, Politics and economics, Territory and mobility, Urban Paradigms

Borders, Community, Geopolitics, Heritage, Landscape, Political jurisdiction, Politics, Report, Territorial Approach, Urban Paradigms

Originally published by Forensic Architecture -- https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/the-wall-in-battir

In the Palestinian village of Battir, a legal case argued against the Israeli separation barrier on the grounds of nature and heritage has forced the army to freeze their plans. The village is located south of Jerusalem, close to the 1948 Green Line and to an old Ottoman railway, where the Israeli army was planning to build a new segment of its separation wall. The local landscape includes terraces and irrigation channels dating to the Roman Period, trees that are more than a thousand years old, and several other unique cultural and social elements. UNESCO included this natural and cultural heritage in its World Heritage List in 2014 after a submission from a group that included two members of Forensic Architecture.