Participants: Hamzeh Al-Aqrabawi from the group Tijwal Safar (Ramallah),
Joanna Rafidi from the group Shat-ha (Ramallah),
and Khalil Ghara from the group Tijwal (’48 occupied Palestine)

Monday, July 28 | 18:00–19:30
Location: The Palestinian Museum

In a time that preceded the ongoing genocide, Tijwal groups were active in the West Bank and within the occupied Palestine in 1948. Despite their diversity, these groups shared a core goal: to deepen the relationship with the land and place, and to reconnect with a homeland fragmented by occupation. This aim was echoed in the motto adopted by Tijwal Safar’s: “Walk the land, and it becomes yours”.

Since the onset of the genocidal war on Gaza and the escalation of settler violence in the West Bank, the activity of Tijwal groups has diminished, and their ability to move has become increasingly limited.

In this talk, we revisit mottos like “Walk the land, and it becomes yours” or “Walk the land to know it”, and ask: Is knowing the land enough in the face of heavily armed settler violence? If the West Bank is fragmented into islands separated by hundreds of fixed and flying checkpoints, and if we lack the freedom to travel between our cities and villages to meet even our basic daily needs, do we really have the ability to walk between villages surrounded by settlements?

Has tijwal (walking) through Palestine become a mere memory, recalled from a time that now feels “utopian” by the harsh standards of our present? How can we walk through our towns and villages that were erased with our Nakba?

And how can we reclaim our collective memory in a time of speed, fragmentation, and successive catastrophes?

This talk is held alongside the exhibition Tijwal, opening a collective space to reflect on what walking through Palestine means today: what remains of it? What might be restored? And what is its place amid recurring catastrophes and shifting political realities?

The conversation will bring together Tijwal Safar and Shat-ha from the West Bank, and Tijwal from the occupied Palestine in 1948, in an attempt to interrogate our evolving relationship with place and the possibilities for movement in a context marked by restriction and ongoing erasure.

_{Photo: A colour photo taken during a trekking tour. Siham Barghothi Sub-collection 1: From Siham Barghouti's Photo Album, The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive.}