Join Mohammed El-Kurd, Dr. Nadi Abusaada and Haymarket Books to celebrate the launch of Against Erasure: A Photographic Memory of Palestine Before the Nakba

Through its stunning collection of images of Palestine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Against Erasure tells the story of a land full of people—people with families, hopes, dreams, and a deep connection to their home—before Israel’s establishment in 1948, known to Palestinians as the Nakba, or “catastrophe.” Denying Palestinian existence has been a fundamental premise of Zionism, which has sought not only to hide this existence but also to erase its memory. But existence leaves traces, and the imprint of the Palestine that was remains, even in the absence of those expelled from their lands. It appears in the ruins of a village whose name no longer appears in the maps, in the drawing of a lost landscape, in the lyrics of a song, or in the photographs from a family album.

For this launch event, Mohammed El-Kurd and Nadi Abusaada will discuss the Palestine depicted in these breathtaking photos, and how their existence is a testament not to nostalgia, but to the power of resistance.

Order a copy of the book: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2325-against-erasure

***Register through Ticket Tailor to receive a link to the live-streamed video on the day of the event. This event will also be recorded and captioning will be provided.***

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Speakers:

Dr. Nadi Abusaada is an architect and a writer. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at ETH Zurich. He was previously the Aga Khan Postdoctoral Fellow in Architecture at MIT. Nadi earned his PhD and MPhil degrees in architecture from the University of Cambridge. He is the co-editor of the forthcoming book Arab Modern: Architecture and the Project of Independence (gta Verlag, 2024) and has written extensively on the material histories and visual cultures of the modern Arab world. His writings have been featured in various academic journals including Architectural Theory Review, Architecture and Culture, and the International Journal for Islamic Architecture, among others. He is also the co-founder of Arab Urbanism, an editorial contributor at The Architectural Review, and a contributing editor at the Jerusalem Quarterly.

Mohammed El-Kurd is a writer and poet from Jerusalem, occupied Palestine, currently serving as The Nation's first-ever Palestine Correspondent. He is the author of RIFQA and the forthcoming nonfiction project tentatively-titled A Million States In One. His 2023 Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Princeton will be adapted into a book.