Injustices of Occupation.SIR: In reply to the concern of Josef Habas (AR Nov 2004), no one doubts the talent of Israel's architects--in fact the work of Zvi Hecker Zvi Hecker (born May 31 1931 in Kraków, Poland) is an Israeli architect with offices in Berlin and Amsterdam.[1] Move to Israel and study Hecker emigrated to Israel in 1950. He studied architecture in the Israel Institute of Technology, graduating in 1955. and others have featured regularly in AR. As a student in the 1960s, I worked for Arieh Sharon, a key exponent exponent, in mathematics, a number, letter, or algebraic expression written above and to the right of another number, letter, or expression called the base. In the expressions x2 and xn, the number 2 and the letter n of Tel Aviv's Bauhaus architecture, of which I am a great fan. But since 1967, until the present, when the Middle East dominates the news, it is quite natural that where politics have such an impact on architecture, and other fields such as health, that critical opinion (not hatred) will find its way into responsible professional journals. Creating the physical reality of Israeli and Zionist aims and policies of settlement, including Ariel Sharon's 'facts on the ground' requires the expertise of architects, planners, economists and other professionals. The most significant aspect of Israeli architecture is its political dimension. This was explicitly presented in a study done by Rafi Segal and Eyal Weizman, now published as A Civilian Occupation--the politics of Israeli Architecture (Verso ver·so n. pl. ver·sos 1. A left-hand page of a book or the reverse side of a leaf, as opposed to the recto. 2. The back of a coin or medal. Press), Israel's exhibition entry to the International Union of Architects Conference in 2002 in Berlin, which was withdrawn by the Israel Association of United Architects (IAUA), Esther Zandberg wrote in Haaretz, 'the Israeli community of architects very piously follows a total separation between "pure" professionalism and "dirty" politics. Apart from a few honourable exceptions, Israeli architects never seem to have examined their actions critically. There is little moral stocktaking stock·tak·ing n. 1. A reappraisal of a situation, a person, or one's own position or prospects. 2. The act or process of inventorying merchandise or the supplies on hand. , particularly among its veterans, who have never seen the national conflict as involving themselves.' Famous architects produce projects on illegally annexed territory, with the explicit aim of expanding the Jewish population in Jerusalem. There are few instances of integrated Jewish and Arab housing within Israel, and there is total separation, emphasized by the obscene Wall, between Israeli settlements and Palestinians in the Occupied Territories This article is about occupied territory in general: for more specific discussion of the territories captured by Israel in the Six-Day War, see Israeli-occupied territories. Occupied territories . Just as the boycott of Schools of Architecture during the Apartheid years in South Africa South Africa, Afrikaans Suid-Afrika, officially Republic of South Africa, republic (2005 est. pop. 44,344,000), 471,442 sq mi (1,221,037 sq km), S Africa. , reluctant though it was, eventually added to the pressure that brought about the downfall of apartheid, so Israeli architects should examine their role in perpetuating the injustices of the Occupation. Yours etc ABE ABE Adult Basic Education ABE Allgemeine Betriebserlaubnis (German: general operating permit) ABE Advanced Book Exchange (Abebooks) ABE Association of Business Executives ABE Association of Building Engineers HAYEEM Edgware, Middlesex, England |
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