Institute of the Arts and Sciences 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, CA P (831) 502-7252 Email ias@ucsc.edu
January 12 - March 2, 2024
12- 5 p.m. Tuesdays - Saturdays
Featuring a series of visual investigations of state violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, They Are Shooting at Our Shadows is the first exhibition of the Forensic Architecture Investigation (FAI) Unit at the Al-Haq organization in Ramallah—a political, intellectual and counter-forensic contribution to the Palestinian liberation movement.
About Al-Haq:
Al-Haq is a prominent and independent Palestinian non-governmental human rights organization based in Ramallah, Palestine. Established in 1979 to protect and promote human rights and the rule of law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the organization has special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Al-Haq documents violations of the individual and collective rights of Palestinians in the OPT, irrespective of the identity of the perpetrator, and seeks to end such breaches by way of advocacy before national and international mechanisms and by holding the violators accountable.
To this end, we conduct research, prepare field reports, studies and interventions on breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law in the OPT, and undertake legal and political advocacy before local, regional and international bodies.
About the Forensic Architecture Investigation Unit:
Since 2020, Al-Haq has worked closely with the London-based research agency Forensic Architecture to build the Forensic Architecture Investigation (FAI) Unit.
Housed within Al-Haq’s Monitoring and Documentation Department in Ramallah, and the first of its kind in the Middle East, the FAI Unit employs Forensic Architecture’s established methodologies and techniques for monitoring and documenting violations against Palestinians in pursuit of legal accountability and public advocacy.
Since its inception, the FAI Unit has worked to cultivate a new understanding of how human rights documentation can function in Palestine—in a context where rights defenders are themselves living under occupation and apartheid, regularly facing both Israeli digital and physical violence. In so doing, as Palestinian forensic investigators, the FAI Unit is also pushing forward the limits of Forensic Architecture’s techniques by interlacing Al-Haq’s established frameworks for community-centered ground truths with visual and spatial analysis.
January 12, 2024
Statement: Al-Haq Forensic Architecture Investigation Unit
Al-Haq FAI Unit: They Are Shooting at Our Shadows Audio Tour
Duration: 24 minutes 46 seconds
