The Watcher: Reconstructing Ayn Al Zaytoun

Ayn Al Zaytoun's attack and massacre was a scene watched by the surrounding hilltops of Northern Palestine's citizens in 1948. In the future of the inevitable liberation of Palestine, this project reconstructs the village into a memorial culture centre that watches back to remind, and retells to inform.
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Designer(s) : Nagham Abu AlSu'ud

University : Hashemite University

Tutor(s) : Dr. Yamen AlBetawi

Project Description

The village of Ayn Al Zaytoun was attacked, massacred and depopulated by Zionist Palmach gangs during May of 1948. This project pictures Palestine as a land liberated and proposes its reconstruction.

In the mountainous region of the Upper Galilee, Ayn Al Zaytoun stood at the main road that connected Safad, the main city in the region, with the rest of Palestine. This made it a pause point for travellers for prayer or water. The villagers’ lives seemed to revolve around their water source.

During the attack, on the neighbouring hilltop of the city, Safad, Zionists watched and cheered with every bomb dropped. Later, locals watched the destruction of the village, feared, and fled. With that, the North of Palestine was occupied.

What remains today is the village’s masjid and tunnelled water spring beside it.

The project converses with the hilltop of Safad by placing the village’s harvest mill at the hilltop, facilitating movement of crops from the village to the city, and the movement of visitors from the city to the museum.

“The Watcher” proposes an observation tower, seen in the horizon by the surrounding hilltops as a constant reminder to the Nakba and the need to fight injustice. The tower itself harvests rainwater, creates part of the museum and provides space for vertical farming; a first step into modern agriculture. A farmers’ market creates the main communal