Driving in Palestine التحرّك في فلسطين

by Rehab Nazzal

During the past seven decades, Palestine has been sealed from the Arab world and shattered into fragmented and coded 1948 area, 1967 area, Jerusalem, West Bank, Gaza, and A, B and C areas within the West Bank. Each area is ruled by different laws, including different roads and permits that control the mobility of Palestinians and privilege Jewish settlers.

Driving in Palestine is a research-creation project by acclaimed artist Rehab Nazzal, who explores the visible indices of the politics of mobility that she encountered firsthand while traversing the occupied West Bank between 2010 and 2020. This photography book consists of 160 black and white photographs, hand-drawn maps and critical essays in Arabic and English by Palestinian and Canadian scholars and artists.

The photographs were all captured from moving vehicles on the roads of the West Bank. They focus on Israel’s architecture of movement restrictions and surveillance structures that proliferate in the West Bank, including the Apartheid Wall, segregation walls surrounding illegal colonies, gates, fences, watchtowers, roadblocks and military checkpoints among other obstacles to freedom of movement.

Genres: Nonfiction

200 pages, Paperback

Published April 6, 2023

Reviews

[anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

haunting and unbearable. and to think, i'm only experiencing those barbarisms as images on my computer screen

[bianca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for free here as part of #ReadPalestine week from Publishers for Palestine

[jac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful and haunting photos complemented with critical essays from a wide variety of thinkers. These photos followed me to my dreams. Free palestine 🇵🇸

[Mateo Dk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Photography isn't usually my thing, but the essays accompanying the photographs really helped and were amazing-- I also really liked that both the Arabic and English were bound up together

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is phenomenal. Highly recommend.

[Khalid Hamadeh · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10. Driving in Palestine is an exceptionally thought-provoking, evocative, and informative book that sheds light on the politics of mobility and surveillance in Palestine. This book has 150+ incredible black and white photographs by acclaimed artist and photographer Rehab Nazzal - and it is much more than a photography book. Driving in Palestine also includes hand-drawn maps and powerful, critical essay from Mohammed El-Kurd, Rana H Nazzal, Nyla Matuk, Yasmeen Abu Laban, and more. Highly recommend.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen Sheehi writes of how Rebab Nazzal’s photographs in sharing the everyday violence of Isreal’s occupation, its extreme military control, also “reveal life within the gruelling monotony with the Occupation… but they revealed this out of the love that emanates from the cab of each taxi, car, and mini bus.” A beautiful summary of the journey of this book.

I had the good fortune of attending Rehab’s Driving in Palestine exhibition this summer - my reflections and photos are here https://open.substack.com/pub/kimelli...

[Joe Rueb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masterful. The photos and essays in this book speak volumes to the constructed division and separation of a people from their own land.

It is of course heartbreaking to see such things visually, but at the same time it is empowering to observe Palestinians fighting back against an illegitimate and vicious regime.

[Fayrose Hajer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devastating.

FREE PALESTINE. END SETTLER ZIONIST OCCUPATION AND GENOCIDE.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are no words to describe the photographs seen in this book.