Jerusalem – Ma’an – Zainab Izz al-Din Jamous, a student in the Department of Architecture at Al-Quds University, won second place in the international architectural competition for the revival of displaced Palestinian villages, which is offered annually by the Palestine Land Foundation, under the supervision of Dr. Maha al-Samman. The projects were evaluated in the British capital, London, with the participation of 53 Palestinian and Arab students from 12 universities from different countries, after she qualified at the level of Palestine to compete with projects from universities in other Arab countries.

Dr. Al-Samman said about the competition, ‘The awareness of the young generation of the importance of participating in this competition contributes to spreading knowledge about our displaced villages and presenting creative ideas to revive them.’

Student Jamous explained the idea of ??the winning project, saying, ‘My project revolves around reviving the displaced village of Al-Mazraa in the Jenin district,
which was destroyed by the occupation and its people were forcibly displaced to the Jenin refugee camp, through the Palestinian collective memory theater. Here, my project sheds light on the collective Palestinian narrative, the heroism and the struggle events that witness the story of the steadfast Palestinian people, as their story began in the village before the displacement. Then the project follows the completion of its narrative in the Jenin refugee camp, as the memories of the camp are an integral part of the Palestinian memory.’

‘I chose theatrical intervention because theatre is the tool that enables the Palestinian people to tell their stories freely and spontaneously, without any boundaries between the narrator and the viewer, so that they can express what they have been through and convey their feelings to the audience through the improvisational theatre stage, in addition to the theatre’s architectural ability to enhance and employ both intangible and tangible heritage using the performance plat
form where the clothes are represented by Palestinian dress, and the theatrical dialogue represents Palestinian dialects and popular songs, while the actor in the play is the Palestinian people themselves.’

The theatrical intervention, according to Jamous, begins before the liberation inside the alley of the Jenin refugee camp, where the theater has artistic value by hosting the Freedom Theater. The intervention consists of a group of movable iron structures, enabling the camp’s residents to express their stories in an improvised manner, as theater for the camp is a tool of resistance.

The main intervention, as indicated, is an open-air theater on top of the Mazar hill – after the liberation – where the natural contour (layers of the earth) was exploited to form the theater’s stages, in addition to a group of iron structure units that form miniature theaters for puppets, in addition to other functions inside the storytelling building on top of the hill (an exhibition of Palestinian stories and costumes, a w
orkshop for making puppets, and an archive for preserving memories), in addition to a watchtower overlooking the surrounding villages, and displaying stories from Palestinian history on the tower’s stone walls, while the project uses Palestinian stone to build the tower, and stone chains to build the theater’s stages.

‘The project promotes the Palestinian right of return and awareness of the importance of intangible heritage, which is represented by the stories narrated and passed down through generations that grandparents were keen to tell to children throughout the ages, as they are part of the Palestinian identity and evidence of the Palestinian presence and Palestinian history, which the occupation is trying to obliterate and falsify,’ Jamous confirms.

Regarding participation, the student concluded, ‘The opportunity to participate in the competition was under the guidance of my professor, Dr. Maha Al-Samman, where I received continuous support and guidance in the direction that developed the project to
reach this mature product from the beginning to excellence. I also cannot forget the role of the competition in highlighting the students’ performance to the world and opening the opportunity for the outside world to discover the students’ creativity.’

I also mention in this context the distinction of the staff at the College of Architecture, including the deanship and distinguished professors, who had and still have a great impact in refining the students’ skills, headed by the department under the management of Professor Abdul Rahman Al-Kalouti and its dean, Dr. Yara Al-Saifi.

Source: Maan News Agency