It does not work, no matter how much the settler tries: Dorota Golańska, Ewa Górska, ‘Spatializing nationhood: cultural heritage preservation and the architectonics of Jewish belonging in Silwan (East Jerusalem)’, Geoforum, 166, 2025, #104430 | settler colonial studies blog

It does not work, no matter how much the settler tries: Dorota Golańska, Ewa Górska, ‘Spatializing nationhood: cultural heritage preservation and the architectonics of Jewish belonging in Silwan (East Jerusalem)’, Geoforum, 166, 2025, #104430

13Oct25

Abstract: The article investigates the spatial dimension of the entanglement of settler colonialism and nationalism embedded in the Israeli policy of cultural heritage conservation in Silwan (East Jerusalem) by focusing on the case of the City of David National Park. Attempting to naturalize the Jewish presence in this part of the city, Israel invests in production of a site-specific and highly agential arrangement of material and discursive elements to solidify the Jewish nation’s identity and facilitate the colonial acquisition of the Palestinian land. This architectonics of belonging occlude the colonial character of the Israeli presence in the area, spatializing what discursively figures as a historically legitimized Jewish right to this territory, thus redesigning the spatial settler colonial dynamics defining who counts as native in the area. However, as the article expounds, from a settler colonial perspective, both the Zionist settlement project in Silwan and the establishment of the City of David National Park display a dissonance between aspirations and outcomes: while devastating for local Palestinians, these initiatives still fundamentally fail in achieving settler colonial goals. The article offers a localized reading of the Israeli project in Silwan by paying attention to the narratives of Silwanian activists, attempting to look at the ongoing situation in Silwan from their standpoint. As a result, it partly recalibrates the dominant settler colonial paradigm (typically focused on settlers’ perspective), situating our analysis within the context of Palestinian resilience.

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