Past, Present, and Future of Urban Palestine — David Peter Kerr

Illustration for the June 2026 edition of Urban Matters Journal, titled "Everywhere // Anytime: The Past, Present, and Future of Urban Palestine"

Several articles in this edition discussed processes of urbicide in Palestine. In this illustration, I attempted to focus on Palestinian resistance to displacement, urbicide and memoricide in the refugee camps of Gaza, including the way the camps act as networks involved in the production and retention of cultural heritage, education and labour organising.

I have attempted to illustrate the topic of urbicide by focusing on resistance and heritage rather than a fetishisation of destruction, as is often the case with illustrations of urbicide.

I originally conceived this illustration as a diptych, and there is an accompanying illustration exploring other facets of urbicide that I hope to complete and publish at a later date.

This was drawn at a larger scale than normal, and is around one metre wide. It will be presented in an exhibition at the Nordic Geographers Meeting at the University of Iceland, Reykjavík, 22–25 June.