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We speak with Forensic Architecture’s Eyal Weizman about his new book, Ungrounding: The Architecture of Genocide, a meticulous investigation into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the physical destruction of the territory and its impact on the Palestinian people.

Forensic Architecture was founded in 2010 as an interdisciplinary research group focused on investigating state violence and human rights violations. Since 2023, Forensic Architecture has focused on producing evidence for South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

Weizman says “ungrounding” is “a kind of destruction that we have not seen anywhere else,” with Israeli bulldozers “terraforming” the landscape to erase all traces of Palestinian life. With thousands of bodies still unrecovered from under destroyed buildings, Israel’s flattening, extraction and reshaping of the rubble in Gaza is a continuation of its crimes, says Weizman.

“Israel is actively and against court order, against the order of the ICJ, destroying the evidence of the genocide that it has perpetrated,” he says.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

Israel Is Continuing to Seize More of Gaza Beyond the So-Called “Yellow Line”

AMY GOODMAN: Israel is continuing to commit genocide in Gaza long past the so-called ceasefire agreement. That’s according to a new report out this week from the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The report also accuses Israeli forces of committing crimes against humanity in the West Bank, including extermination, torture and rape.

The Israeli Mission in Geneva said the latest report was part of a “misinformation campaign to demonize the State of Israel” and to, quote, “destroy the Jewish state,” unquote.

The United Nations-commissioned experts said Israel was, quote, “continuing to commit genocidal acts with the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in Gaza,” unquote. They found Israeli forces continued using heavy munitions, drones, quadcopters, artillery and sniper fire in densely populated areas during the ceasefire. They also found that the so-called Yellow Line, which was presented as a temporary ceasefire demarcation, is increasingly encroaching into Gaza and becoming a de facto border.

Well, the organization Forensic Architecture, which has been mapping Israel’s military conduct in Gaza since October 2023, details exactly how Israel has used the Yellow Line to expand its territorial control of Gaza. Here’s a clip from the project titled “A Cartography of Genocide.”

NARRATOR: When the ceasefire came into effect, most of the area Israel had depopulated remained under its control. This constituted 54% of Gaza, marked by the Yellow Line. The Yellow Line is meant to mark phase one of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. Instead, Israel is using the line to expand its control. Along the Yellow Line, Israel has placed concrete yellow blocks, signaling areas Palestinians cannot approach. We have mapped the position of more than 100 yellow blocks. Most have been placed well beyond the agreed withdrawal line. Over time, Israel is moving these blocks further into the area where Palestinians are concentrated. With every expansion, the military destroys another neighborhood, preventing Palestinian return. Israel also imposed an additional boundary, which it called the Orange Line. In some places, this line encroaches more than one kilometer beyond the Yellow Line. At the same time, Israel has entrenched its military presence. Around every 1.8 kilometers along the Yellow Line, it has built a fortified military base. We have documented 34 active bases. Many bases, like this one in Bani Suheila, have been constructed on the ruins of Palestinian homes. Israel has also demolished and compacted nearby buildings which remained standing. Building by building, Gaza’s landscape is being permanently reconfigured. This picture shows the neighborhood before it was erased.

NARRATOR: When the ceasefire came into effect, most of the area Israel had depopulated remained under its control. This constituted 54% of Gaza, marked by the Yellow Line. The Yellow Line is meant to mark phase one of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. Instead, Israel is using the line to expand its control.

Along the Yellow Line, Israel has placed concrete yellow blocks, signaling areas Palestinians cannot approach. We have mapped the position of more than 100 yellow blocks. Most have been placed well beyond the agreed withdrawal line. Over time, Israel is moving these blocks further into the area where Palestinians are concentrated. With every expansion, the military destroys another neighborhood, preventing Palestinian return.

Israel also imposed an additional boundary, which it called the Orange Line. In some places, this line encroaches more than one kilometer beyond the Yellow Line.

At the same time, Israel has entrenched its military presence. Around every 1.8 kilometers along the Yellow Line, it has built a fortified military base. We have documented 34 active bases. Many bases, like this one in Bani Suheila, have been constructed on the ruins of Palestinian homes.

Israel has also demolished and compacted nearby buildings which remained standing. Building by building, Gaza’s landscape is being permanently reconfigured. This picture shows the neighborhood before it was erased.

AMY GOODMAN: On Tuesday, the U.N. special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, called on the ICC, the International Criminal Court, to investigate incitement to genocide by government officials and media figures in Israel.

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: What is happening is not incidental; it is intentional. This is why I provocatively called it mediacide, the systematic destruction of the media’s public function, the transformation of media itself into an instrument through which atrocities can be concealed, normalized or justified. In a genocide, the systematic attack on the media is part and parcel of the crime.

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: What is happening is not incidental; it is intentional. This is why I provocatively called it mediacide, the systematic destruction of the media’s public function, the transformation of media itself into an instrument through which atrocities can be concealed, normalized or justified. In a genocide, the systematic attack on the media is part and parcel of the crime.

AMY GOODMAN: Over 250 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.

To talk about Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and more, we’re joined here in New York by Eyal Weizman, the Israeli-born British architect, the founder and director of Forensic Architecture. His book is just out. It’s called Ungrounding: The Architecture of Genocide. Eyal is professor of spatial and visual cultures at Goldsmiths College at the University of London. His previous books include Hollow Land, Israel’s Architecture of Occupation and The Least of All Possible Evils: A Short History of Humanitarian Violence. Eyal Weizman is a member of the Technology Advisory Board of the International Criminal Court and the recipient of the 2024 Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.

Eyal Weizman, welcome back to Democracy Now!

EYAL WEIZMAN: It’s such a pleasure being here, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s turn first to the title of your book. It’s called Ungrounding: The Architecture of Genocide. If you can explain what that means?

EYAL WEIZMAN: Yeah. So, in Forensic Architecture, we often look at cities that undergo an aerial bombardment campaign. And even after those bombings, you can see where buildings have stood. You can see a pile of ruin.

Ungrounding is a kind of destruction that we have not seen anywhere else. It is actually produced by bulldozers, and nothing has remained of the traces of destruction. In fact, the bulldozer stab their front loader into the ground and flips the terrain, erasing also the traces of destruction. So, ungrounding is a kind of destruction that traces — that erases the traces of destruction. It’s producing a kind of desertification, if you like, a kind of homogeneous piles of ruin that are unidentified by the people that inhabited that place before.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to a part of that short video that your group, Forensic Architecture, made about the living conditions in Gaza since the start of the so-called ceasefire.

NARRATOR: Inside the concentration area, the majority of Palestinians still live in sprawling tent camps. The population density and Israel’s ongoing siege are severely limiting access to resources. This orchard in Khan Younis was one of the few still accessible to Palestinians. Since the ceasefire, it has been cleared to make room for tents. Degraded living conditions are becoming the permanent reality of life in Gaza. Tent camps are surrounded by destruction, and many Palestinians have resorted to sheltering inside and around damaged buildings. On the 16th of September, one of these buildings collapsed, killing at least 20 Palestinians. Three years into the genocide, the ceasefire is normalizing ongoing Israeli occupation and expansion, while Palestinian life is slowly being extinguished.

NARRATOR: Inside the concentration area, the majority of Palestinians still live in sprawling tent camps. The population density and Israel’s ongoing siege are severely limiting access to resources. This orchard in Khan Younis was one of the few still accessible to Palestinians. Since the ceasefire, it has been cleared to make room for tents.

Degraded living conditions are becoming the permanent reality of life in Gaza. Tent camps are surrounded by destruction, and many Palestinians have resorted to sheltering inside and around damaged buildings. On the 16th of September, one of these buildings collapsed, killing at least 20 Palestinians.

Three years........

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