Spatiality and Colonial Violence in Two Palestinian Spaces Seen Through Two Palestinian Cinematic Narratives:
The Case of Movie Theaters in Gaza and the Jerusalem International Airport
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15517/h.v16i2.10617Keywords:
cinema, Palestine, Israel, space, colonizationAbstract
This paper examines two cinematic narratives that serve as illustrations of the spatial transformation that has transpired due to the Israeli occupation of two Palestinian territories: Gaza and the West Bank. In addition to offering an audiovisual perspective on the effects of the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, these films serve as a medium that provides voices and images to the Palestinian resistance, which manifests itself in various ways. This study endeavours to examine the socio-historical dynamics of Palestinian spatiality, which are closely associated with the colonization of Palestine by Israel, in accordance with the principles of critical geography as espoused by Henri Lefebvre. In particular, these spaces are analysed from the standpoint of the epistemic deletion that is associated with the colonial enterprise of Israel in Palestine. Cinema is viewed as a form of expression that subverts the narrative of the Israeli settler in order to validate and give voice to the colonized. This investigation also contemplates the capacity of cinema to function as a subversive instrument of resistance against the Israeli occupation and as an invaluable historical document.
Downloads
References
Al-Husseini, J. y Signoles, A. (2009). Construction nationale, territorialité et diasporisation: Le cas palestinien. Maghreb-Machrek, 199(1), 23-42. https://doi.org/10.3917/machr.199.0023 DOI: https://doi.org/10.54695/machr.199.0023
Al-Muzayen, K. (Director). (2012). Gaza 36 mm [Documental]. Doha Film Institute; Lama Film. https://www.on-tenk.com/fr/documentaires/palestine-soulevements-cinematographiques/gaza-36-mm
Awwad, N. (Director). (2007). 5 Minutes from Home [Documental]. AKKA Films; Manarah Films; Karavan Films. https://www.on-tenk.com/fr/documentaires/palestine-soulevements-cinematographiques/5-minutes-from-home
Bidaseca, K. (2011). “Mujeres blancas buscando salvar a mujeres color café”: Desigualdad, colonialismo jurídico y feminismo poscolonial. Andamios, 8(17), 61-89. https://doi.org/10.29092/uacm.v8i17.445 DOI: https://doi.org/10.29092/uacm.v8i17.445
Brockhill, A. y Cordell, K. (2019). The violence of culture: The legitimation of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Third World Quarterly, 40(5), 981-998. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2019.1581057 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2019.1581057
Gelvin, J. L. (2008). The Modern Middle East: A History. Oxford University Press.
Gertz, N. y Khleifi, G. (2005). Palestinian ‘roadblock movies’. Geopolitics, 10(2), 316-334. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650040590946601 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14650040590946601
Hanieh, A. (2013). Lineages of Revolt: Issues of Contemporary Capitalism in the Middle East. Haymarket Books.
Kotef, H. y Amir, M. (2011). Between imaginary lines: Violence and its justifications at the military checkpoints in occupied Palestine. Theory, Culture & Society, 28(1), 55-80. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276410380940 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276410380940
Laban, A. S. (2011). Qalandia checkpoint: A main Palestinian gateway to Jerusalem. Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics, and Culture, 17, 104-108.
Lefebvre, H. (1981). La production de l’espace. Éditions Anthropos.
Pappé, I. (2006). The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld Publications. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/jps.2006.36.1.6
Pappé, I. (2024). A Very Short History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict. Oneworld Publications.
Parizot, C. (2018). Viscous spatialities: The spaces of the Israeli permit regime of access and movement. The South Atlantic Quarterly, 117(1), 21-42. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-4282028 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-4282028
Peled-Elhanan, N. (2011). The representation of ‘Others’ in Israeli schoolbooks: A multimodal analysis. Journal of International Cooperation in Education, 14(2), 115-130.
Pulecio Mariño, E. (2008). El cine: Análisis y estética. Ministerio de Cultura de Colombia.
Rifkin, M. (2017). Indigeneity, Apartheid, Palestine: On the Transit of Political Metaphors. Cultural Critique, 95(1), 25-70. https://doi.org/10.1353/cul.2017.a663843 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/cul.2017.a663843
Said, E. W. (2006). Prefacio. En H. Dabashi (Ed.), Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema (pp. 1-5). Verso Books.
Scalercio, M. (2011). Edward Said y Palestina: Archivo, narración y filología. Revista Intersticios de la Política y la Cultura, 10, 179-191.
Sebag, J. y Durand, J. P. (2024). Filmic Sociology: Theory and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33696-6
Stohrel, V. (2003). Cine sobre gente, gente sobre cine: Entre el documental televisivo y académico. Universidad de Halmstad.
Tawil-Souri, H. (2011). Qalandia checkpoint as space and nonplace. Space and Culture, 14(1), 4-26. https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331210389260 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331210389260
The Palestine-Israel Conflict. (2013, 13 de febrero). 9,000 Photos from 1800’s British Mandate of
Palestine – with no trace of ‘Palestinians’. https://palestineisraelconflict.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/9000-photographs-and-israel-from-1800s-with-no-trace-of-displaced-palestinians/
Traverso, E. (2024). Gaza ante la historia. Akal.
Weiner, M. F. (2023). Palestinian Erasure and Dehumanization in Introductory Sociology Texts. Critical Sociology, 49(6), 991-1008. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205221132839 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205221132839
Wolf, R. (2025, 20 de febrero). Israeli UFC fighter talks antisemitism at self-defense seminar as Hamas hostages mark 500 days. Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/us/israeli-ufc-fighter-talks-antisemitism-self-defense-seminar-hamas-hostages-mark-500-days
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Luis Enrique P´erez Froylán

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
