To imagine is to transcend lived horrors. It is an act that reconstructs appropriated socio-spatial narratives and relationalities, an act that guides solidarity, remedies hope, and situates resistance. Imagination is a stretch back to places that were once enjoyed, to jump over the fences that bar from them, and to reclaim and reknit relations to places and spaces of being and belonging. It is to draw on tacit traditional knowledge, to sketch the contours of a tomorrow that restores humanity. It is an art that translates and communicates complex emotions into stories, into visions, into moments that escape capture but enable continuation in spite of the grim odds.

For information about the Takhayali project (2018-2025), click here

Between 2019 and 2020, Mai met with twenty of our interlocutors from Ein Qiniya, one at a time for several hours, to sketch an imaginary masterplan for the community. We utilized the space of the research and the medium of intuitive and organic design (as opposite to taught and rule-based), in order to connect the dots between what each interlocutor expressed during the in-depth interview (life conditions, struggles, relationships, love, potentials, aspirations, connections to land), and the kinds of spaces that she perceived as stepping stones for the desired future. The Takhayali sessions were designed with the aim to expand the spaces of exchange, connection, criticism of built and unbuilt surroundings, and sought to reassess both the perceptions of solutions as well as the tools at disposal through constructive conversations. Noteworthy, when the research started the village had no official masterplan, but there were clear indicators that one will be requested. In spring 2022 the Ministry of Local Governments handed an order to the Ein Qiniya Village Council to prepare a masterplan, short before the 20 imaginary masterplans got exhibited at the center of the village in a community gathering.

The twenty Takhayali proposals are similar and different. Some want the rural nature and agriculture production preserved, others see EQ urbanizing akin close by neighborhoods. Some want productive cooperatives, a factory, expanding the school, sports facilities, or commercial centers. Most want access to basic needs e.g. a bakery, a grocery shop, and infrastructures such as a nursery.

What all Takhayali proposals desire is a medical center and/or a pharmacy, playgrounds and open spaces, public transportation and waiting areas. And, they all imagine the stretch of Wadi (valley, waterstream) alDilb as a longitudinal social space with kiosks (or a restaurant), swimming areas, and simply a shared space to enjoy the clean(ed!) water and rehabilitated nature (upstream, a recently established treatment plant of Ramallah dumps sewage into the wadi).

These proposals were exhibited in Ein Qiniya on 4 September 2022, in the garden of the project’s supporter Naimeh (Im Nizar) L’malah, together with watercolor personal illustration of each contributor by the artist Yara Bamieh that were designed based on conversations with them. Representatives of the village council attended, but we cannot claim that any of this work will be considered in the since 2022 ongoing process of creating an official masterplan for the village.

A note on water and imaginative returns

Rural spaces in Palestine are gendered. Water springs belonged to women and were an extension of their household activities. Women from villages would wash, bathe, and collect water at the springs as part of their daily routines. In the Takhayali sessions, the women of Ein Qiniya that participated in the exercise fondly recalled activities like gathering Rsees (رَصيص, a particular kind of pebbles) from the alDilb valley and relaxing at its banks with their children and neighbors, until its waters became polluted. Some of the women recounted more spiritual memories, such as climbing the mountain to light candles at the shrine of Abu al‘Ainein (أبو‭ ‬العينين) and the vows they still haven’t fulfilled. Since visiting shrines has become less socially acceptable, the vow remains an unfulfilled burden and responsibility they carry. Few shared more intimate memories in the Janayen (الجَناين, gardens) around Wadi al’Oqdeh, when the waters flowed freely, before the area was renovated in the shape of a concrete block and became a collection spot for garbage and flies. They recalled how the lands around the valleys were once planted with citrus and peaches, families gathered around a vine-leaves tray, children swimming, and lovers promenade. In different ways, they all knit some of their memories into their desired future, and ended with the question: Can any of this really come true?

Infrastructures of Resistance: Anticolonial Education and Practices

In: "Palestine: A Future in Question," Scene 48, 1 June 2025

By: Mai al-Battat and Natasha Aruri