Thesis Booklet_Part 2

Sidney Sim |

Studio 10 be here, like everyday Part 2

Initial Research

- Introduction to Lifta: RIWAQ

- Initial Understanding of Lifta

a) Location of Lifta

b) Pressing Matters of Lifta

c) Access to Lifta

d) Lifta’s Present Day Significance

- Identifying key communities involved in Saving Lifta

a) Save Lifta Coalition

b) Zochrot

c) Israeli Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace

- Significance of Walking Tour in Lifta

Intermediate Research

- Understanding Resistance in Lifta

a) What Saving Lifta is Truly About

b) The Disillusioned Israeli

c) Everyday Resistance

- Program

Sketch Design Research

- Potential Site Options

- Key Conceptual Themes

a) Parallel Narratives

b) Encrypted Resistance

Design Proposal

- Sketches

- Palestinian Coffee House Precedence

- Material Studies

a) Stone

b) Terracota Tile

Resolved Design Proposal

- Thesis Statement

- Final Drawings

Evolution of Thesis Statement

The Coffee House at Lifta

poem by Marc Kaminsky

I want to meet you, Yousef, in the coffee house at Lifta. Let us sit on the ground and invite History with a capital H to bow its head and come through the door in lower case letters. As we speak of our enemy-uncles, let us make more room for what we each lost here.

•

I lost my home on this land, Yoyneh. What did you lose?

• My uncle Avrom-Yitzkhok

left the narrow alleys where our rebbe rushed by on slippered feet to tarry with the Impossible as the Germans were massing on the other side of the border. Don’t cry for me, he told his mother at the train station, I’m going home. He became a fighter in the militia that entered the coffee house and opened fire. We don’t know if he took part in that raid. He didn’t speak of what he did or didn’t do in the war. But this I know: I’ve awakened from the dream in which he was my childhood hero. In the coffee house at Lifta, he nullified the God

my father kept alive in a death camp, and in the DP camp where I was born, my father wrapped me in his prayer shawl and carried me into the world of his love for the Yiddishkeit of our lost shtetl.

• You ask me to sit down with you in a place of imaginary equivalence. There is no door through which I could meet you there, only a hole where a door once opened. Jewish terrorists walked through it and murdered six of my uncles. No one escaped without injury. My father carried me on his back out of Lifta the next morning, and after two years of wandering as a beggar, died of a heart attack, another victim of the Lifta massacre.

• There is no hope unless you and I sit side by side on the site of loss, telling each other the story of that night.

You speak of hope where there is none, if all you propose is that we mourn together. And you speak of the story as if we were one and definitive. You’re still living in your own messianic idea, dreaming that you can repair your takeover of my homeland by incorporating me and the Liftawis’ coffee house in a Jewish storytelling ritual.

You would have me sit with you in mud that was once tiled floor, amid shards of plaster with traces of pigment that once were a mural of musicians in a vineyard under the heavens where a high-vaulted ceiling sheltered the men who gathered there to savor time together, sipping strong black Arab coffee after their day’s labor. And you believe that if you and I return in memory to the place where my world came to an end, we can make our two stories one?

•

Why. then. Yousef, did you welcome my alliance? Why did you take me on a guided tour of the ruins? Why fight to preserve Lifta as a place of memory?

Lest you forget the destruction your uncle visited on my village. And as a placeholder for my dead and my life in parenthesis : this is where I can bring my past and future into an encounter with you and end your erasure of my face

In yeshiva, I learned to draw things toward the unity in which we sought to live with God in the world. The template of faith in which I was taught to think precedes the new thoughts arising in me, and returns them to the syntax that formed me. I see, Yousef, why you reject the terms in which I tried to communicate my desire. Give me a chance to try again. I believe that unless we bring our irreconcilable stories into the same bare room, unless we sit and listen to each other mourn the damage of our mutual history, we will not grow in tolerance for the other’s truth and cease reenacting the impossibility of peace between our uncles’ warring ghosts. How else can we be released from our deadlock?

No, Yoyneh, the room is not bare, and the ground on which it stands hold roots of the fruit-bearing trees we planted and tended continuously for two thousand years.

You seek reconciliation in the sphere of the spirit. That will not happen until there is justice for Palestinians in our own land. Until you commit yourself to my return

will remain

from exile, the situation

what it is—the ruins of possibility.

As the semester progressed, it was starting to be apparent that this thesis utilizes a considerable amount of resources that have Israeli or Jewish origin.

One of the reasons were that becasue Lifta currently is more accessible to Israelis as compared to Palestinians who are mostly in the Occupie West Bank areas and are not able to enter into Jerusalem easily.

This is where this thesis needs to tread carefully on how it navigates utilizing these resources and to ensure that a Palestinian narrative will always remain at its core.

The Israeli resources are beneficial to understand how Lifta has been able to pull Israelis away from the skewed illusions that they

have been conditioned to believe. The resources also are able to provide orthogonal drawings which can benefit this thesis in understanding Lifta’s site context for the design phase.

However, these resources can never convey the challenges and plight in which everyday Palestinians have to go through as a result of Israel’s occupation and what it means to exercise resistance against oppression on a daily basis.

Hence, when it came to understanding resistance, or the true pain that is felt by the refugees of Lifta, these accounts had to be spoken or written by Palestinians.

The Coffee House at Lifta

poem by Marc Kaminsky

In 2016, a film titled "Ruins of Lifta" was made by both Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky. Thus, following the accounts in the documentary, Kaminsky published the Stones of Lifta soon after and dedicated the book to his friend Menachem. This book consists of a series of poems that were inspired by the experiences Menachem had when he visited Lifta.

One of the poems titled "Coffee House at Lifta" stood out as a key piece of writing depicting the interaction between Menachem Daum who is an american jew and Lifta refugee, Yacoub Odeh. The coffeehouse of Lifta was also an important place as it was where members of the Stern Gang used sub-machine guns to attack the coffeehouse which killed 6 local Liftawi people and wounded 7. The attack occured on the 28th of December 1947. Following the attack, residents of Lifta started to flee for safety and it also marked the start of the Nakba in Lifta.

Thus, this poem portrays the pain Yacoub feels for having been forcibly evicted from his family home and the contradictions or hipocrisy that encircles a Jewish narrative for peace. Furthermore, the last few stanzas of the poem also reveal how Yoyneh was able to realize and understand why without the acknowledgement of the right of retun for the Palestinians, reconcilliation from both sides would not be able to happen.

With that in mind, this poem then critiques the previous proposal suggesting a blended identity in Lifta. The position of a blended identity is unable to justify the narrative of loss and right of return for the Lifta refugees. Hence, it is important that this thesis is able to evoke a sense of resistance in the project whether it be explicit or implicit.

In this book, the author talks about how the walking tour in Lifta is able to facilitate an opportunity for both Palestinian and Israeli students to talk which is not a usual occurence on the campus of the Hebrew University or anywhere else in general. Dr Golan-Agnon then goes on to transcribe some of the conversation between Palestinan and Israeli students. These conversations highlight the apparent disparity that these students experience in university.

For the Palestinian students, they expressed how there is a clear distinction on how they are treated in university. For instance, they do not feel included in a class setting as Palestinian students tend to sit together at the back of the class and Israeli students do not interact with them either. Apart from that, they also feel that the academic staff seem to cater their teaching to Israeli students rather than the for the whole class. Hence, when talking about the case of Lifta, some Palestinian students expressed that if Israeli people do not stand on their side and proactively engage and participate in the fight to resist occupation, then the Israelis are no friends of the Palestinians. Hence for the Palestinian students, the walking tour of Lifta is seen

The Disillusioned Israeli

as just another reminder of the systemic oppresion that has been happening since the Nakba of 1948. This also explains why there were some Palestinian students that did not want to engage in the conversation. They have been raised up with the thinking that these talks of oppression and injustice can only happen within the home and not with Israeli people.

On the other hand, there were also a mix of responses from the Israeli students. For some of them, they expressed their frustration as they do not understand why the Palestinians hate and blame them so much. A student goes on to say that her grandfather came to Israel to escape from the concentration camps in Europe. He came here to fight without knowing what was going on.

However a crucial significance of the walking tour in Lifta was that it started to make the Israeli students question how they were not taught about the Nakba before. And for some of them who had previously witnessed but not understood the difference in treatment between Palestinians and Israelis, this tour made them think about how these differences and prejudice actually impact Palestinian lives.

Thus, this book revealed a key theme on the "Weaponization of Information" which the Israeli government have set out to do. They have been deliberately influencing the thoughts of younger generation which causes them to ignore and turn a blind eye on the oppression that happens not just beyond the wall but in Jerusalem as well. Hence, Lifta is a place that challenges the dominant narrative which have been told to Israelis as well as highlights the life of the Palestinian families that had once lived there.

Life in Occupied Palestine: Three

Words/Phrases that Evoke an Architectural Thinking (Space, Concept, Program)

"Over coffee and cookies, students and faculty members told us of their experiences of being imprisoned, or having loved ones detained for participating in nonviolent protests, or throwing rocks at invading Israeli tanks or at Israeli soldiers coming onto their campuses."

"...debating with urgent

Steel Netting

"...particularly important because, if you google specific locations in Ramallah, you will get a map of only a few streets, most of them with no names."

"...we sat in the outdoor courtyard, encircled by a mix of cityscape and green shady trees..."

"...I realized that her cafe was a cultural hub..."

"...I took out my phone and snapped a few photos as we approached the Qalandia checkpoint... The sun was slanting down and, with the glare from the windows and my awkward angle of approach, I could not quite capture the menace of its towering steel and concrete greyness..."

"...the only others still on my phone were of Morgan and Saleh's cafe and garden."

"...window into a Palestine that is seldom seen by those who have not themselves crossed into the West Bank..."

"The lively cafe setting — the mix of people working on laptops, texting on their cell phones, or conversing over a cardamom-spiced coffee or a mint lemonade — and the garden, with its proliferation of fruit trees, herbs vegetables, and chickens, capture a Palestine that persists in spite of..."

"I hate

"...time and again I witnessed by past and present "...codified in some of the more than fifty laws that discriminate against Palestinian Citizens of Israel."

"...she refused

"By contrast, the photos into a Palestine that

" ...everyday and extraordinary

"...life narratives that

"...infiltrates even the most

"...our mundane begins the home of the dead "...life narratives that include and often intermix diaries, letters, Facebook updates, oral histories, memoir, interviews, poetry, photographs, analysis and theory."

"So, too, resistance is encoded..."

"... move from coffee

" When Palestine has

Overtake "... defended "...infiltrates even the most mundane aspects of my days and nights. My mundane used to begin with a pot of coffee, shared with my husband...Before the city awakens, as we enjoy our coffee, the garden is full of birds' chirping and nothing else..."

"The mundane should "... move from coffee to demonstration, from chants to the only weapon we have — rocks — met with indiscriminate fire and more death and more ahwe sada."

"...I gave her coffee to home — ahwe sada

" The Israeli military occupation drink in our " Cindy delivered Arabic coffee to me, which she had transferred into a plain plastic bag at Morgan's recommendation to obscure its Palestinian origin so as to make it through Israeli airport security."

" The British collaborated

" Cindy delivered Arabic recommendation

Everyday Resistance

Three Cafes and a Special Issue

Words/Phrases that Speak of Palestine (Beautiful, Resistance, Culture)

urgent intensity whether or not hope was politically empowering in the struggle against colonialism, apartheid, and occupation."

New Words (Vocabulary)

Ebullience

witnessed and heard about the ways life in occupied Palestine is continuously punctuated present instances of violence that make writing and editing both urgently important..." Laudable hate this pretentious cafe and its overpriced coffee imported from Italy"

refused to sit down — ' I am not a fan of this cafe. Let's go to my place.' " photos of La Vie and its garden, which borders Qadura refugee camp, provide a window that is seldom seen by those who have not themselves crossed into the West Bank..." extraordinary lives of Palestinians as well as the Zionist efforts to delegitimate, disempower, and eradicate those who live these lives." include and often intermix diaries, letters, Facebook updates, oral histories, memoir, interviews, poetry, photographs, analysis and theory."

"So, too, resistance

is encoded..."

most mundane aspects of my days and nights. My mundane used to begin with a pot of coffee, shared with my husband..." begins with ahwe sada, the drink of death. After the funeral, the community shuffles into to offer condolences and sip a cup of bitter coffee, ahwe sada. I wish never to drink ahwe sada again."

coffee to demonstration, from chants to the only weapon we have — rocks — met with indiscriminate fire and more death and more ahwe sada." a martyr, an all to common occurrence these days, all businesses close as a sign of national mourning and respect — a general strike." defended our homes and our right to life and peace and justice with stones." not include body counts. In Palestine it does. And we should all, wherever or whoever we are, be angry about that." occupation of Palestine is present in every single cup of coffee we serve in our cafe and home. It is a poisonous dye that bleeds through the very fabric of our lives." to take back to Brahim in Hawai'i. I can only connect him to his homeland with a taste of sada — the taste of hospitality and welcome that is now so often the taste of death." collaborated with the Zionist movement to create not a 'national home', but a Zionist state in Palestine Arabic coffee to me, which she had transferred into a plain plastic bag at Morgan's recommendation to obscure its Palestinian origin so as to make it through Israeli airport security."

Exilic Worldview

This reading provides a contemporary narrative to the ongoing political turmoil between Palestine and Israel that is still happening today. The authors employed a central theme of the cafe or coffee as a backdrop for their stories. While reading, there were particular phrases that described of space, the setting and of atmosphere. Hence, these phrases were then tabulated in order to streamline and make these descriptive phrases much more apparent.

In conjunction to the tabulation exercise, the reading also mentioned the idea of "encoding/encryption". For instance, the reading talks about how systemic discrimination has been encrypted into the Israeli law against Palestinian citizens. On the other hand, the authors also highlighted how their joint effort in writing this issue from inside and outside of Palestine is able to encode resistance through words which challenges the false and deadly divisions that structure apartheid, settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing,

and occupation, while also offering visions of life together, and of a free Palestine.

Hence, seeing how this thesis is situated in Lifta, Jerusalem and how at the moment Jerusalem has fallen under Israeli control, the idea of encrypting resistance within the design could be a good strategy to operate with for this thesis. This is similar to how one of the authors had to pack Palestinian coffee beans in clear plastic bag with no labelling in order to pass through Israeli custom checks at the airport.

What is the architectural response for this thesis?

Based on the research thus far, the proposal of designing a coffeehouse in Lifta seems to be a highly convincing program as this program of a coffeehouse is able to echo the underlying layers or narrative that Lifta embodies.

Coffee is a place. Coffee is pores that let the inside seep through to the outside. A separation that unites what can't be united except through its aroma. .. . Coffee is geography

Move the pot away from the low fire, that the hand may undertake its first creation of the day. Pay no heed to rockets, shells, or jets. This is what I want. To possess my dawn, I’ll diffuse the aroma of coffee. Don’t look at the mountain spitting masses of fire in the direction of your hand.

They can aim sea, sky, and earth at me, but they cannot root the aroma of coffee out of me. I shall make my coffee now. I will drink the coffee now.

Right now, I will be sated with the aroma of coffee, that I may at least distinguish myself from a sheep and live one more day, or die, with the aroma of coffee all around me

Excerpts from Mahmoud Darwish’s Memory for Forgetfulness August Beirut 1982

SKETCH DESIGN RESEARCH

2.

1.

A.

B.

C.

Potential Site Options

1. Lifta Walking Tour Trail

2. Lifta Springs

3. Repurposed Home for Jewish School Children

4. Lifta Mosque

5. Olive Press

6. Yacoub Odeh’s Family Home

7. Rahamimoff Architects

8. Lifta Boutique Hotel

9. Israeli Secret Security Tunnel

Site A

Site B

Site C

When choosing a site, the initial idea was to choose a site that looked out onto the ongoing threats that are happening in Lifta so that the proposed coffeehouse can be a part of the narrative of the walking tour which shows participants the reality and ongoing destruction that is still being carried out by Israel.

However during the week 9 presentations, I received feedback that the coffeehouse’s programs should not be too prescriptive but rather a more organic one. This project is not

SITE A.

Healthy amount of natural light on the upper floor

SITE B.

Has two structures built side by side, space in between is interesting

SITE C.

Main facade has a symmetrical quality

Potential Site Options

able to force a person to think a particular way when one visits it, rather, it should be a place to have coffee with friends, discuss about the walking tour, or to just appreciate Lifta.

Hence, Site A then became a desirable option for this project.

Reference for Chosen Site

Key Conceptual Themes

After identifying the program for the coffeehouse, the following key themes have also been identified at this stage of the semester.

They are:

a) Parallel Narratives

b) Encrypted Resistance

Parallel Narratives

The idea of Parallel Narratives stem from the walking tour of Lifta. Some organizations have titled that this walk as Parallel Narratives as participants are able to put themselves in each other’s shoes and realize that the pain and loss that they all feel are the same. Hence, it makes them aware that they are not that different from one another which then allows empathy to be created.

Encrypted Resistance

As for the theme of an encrypted resistance, this concept is able to provide a direction on how the architecture should be appraoched. It could be through a spatial or material interpretation where it encapsulates different meanings.