Episode 31 - Architecture of violence - how Israel engineered genocide in Gaza | Eyal Weizman | UNAPOLOGETIC

In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, we speak with Eyal Weizman, architect, scholar, and founder of Forensic Architecture — a research agency that uses spatial investigation to expose state violence and human rights abuses.

We dive deep into the ongoing genocide in Gaza, examining how Israel’s military campaign is not just a war of bombs, but one of deliberate spatial erasure. Eyal breaks down how architecture becomes both a target and a witness — revealing the design, intent, and systematic logic behind the destruction of homes, hospitals, and infrastructure.

But this didn’t start on October 7th. We trace the roots of what Eyal calls an architecture of occupation and ethnic cleansing — a project stretching back to 1948 and unfolding across Gaza, the West Bank, and inside Israel itself. From settlements to bypass roads, from home demolitions to surveillance towers, we look at how space is used to control, fragment, and displace Palestinian life.

We also explore the politics of documentation — how Forensic Architecture builds cases for truth and justice in a world that rewards impunity. And why, in the face of silence and suppression, bearing witness through spatial forensics becomes an act of resistance.

This is a conversation about violence, memory, and the radical potential of architecture as a tool for liberation.

UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim

0:00 – The Architecture of Genocide
1:10 – Meet Eyal Weizman & Forensic Architecture
2:40 – Loss in Gaza: Partners, Friends, Colleagues
5:00 – Is Documentation Enough? Facing Total Destruction
7:40 – Gathering Evidence at Scale: A New Method
10:10 – Destruction with Intent: Gaza as a Planned Kill Zone
13:00 – Safe Zones That Kill: Al-Mawasi & Rafa
15:00 – Ungrounding Gaza: Bulldozers & Memory Erasure
18:00 – Rubble as Weapon: Sniper Towers, Earthworks & Traps
21:30 – Making Gaza Uninhabitable: A Slow, Designed Death
25:00 – Palestinian Resilience & Indigenous Survival
28:30 – Architecture Against International Law
30:30 – Ethnic Cleansing by Design: Since 1948
34:00 – The Gaza Envelope: Settler Fortresses as Siege Tools
37:30 – The Tunnel Network: History, Ingenuity, Resistance
42:00 – From Wells to Warfare: Indigenous Knowledge Reborn
45:00 – Hollow Land: Origins of Eyal’s Work
49:30 – Architecture as a Tool of Oppression
53:00 – How Forensic Architecture Builds the Record
57:00 – Rebuilding Gaza or Repeating Genocide?
1:01:00 – The Only Just Future: Return, Equality, and One State

Chapters

• 0:00 The Architecture of Genocide
• 1:10 Meet Eyal Weizman & Forensic Architecture
• 2:40 Loss in Gaza: Partners, Friends, Colleagues
• 5:00 Is Documentation Enough? Facing Total Destruction
• 7:40 Gathering Evidence at Scale: A New Method
• 10:10 Destruction with Intent: Gaza as a Planned Kill Zone
• 13:00 Safe Zones That Kill: Al-Mawasi & Rafa
• 15:00 Ungrounding Gaza: Bulldozers & Memory Erasure
• 18:00 Rubble as Weapon: Sniper Towers, Earthworks & Traps
• 21:30 Making Gaza Uninhabitable: A Slow, Designed Death
• 25:00 Palestinian Resilience & Indigenous Survival
• 28:30 Architecture Against International Law
• 30:30 Ethnic Cleansing by Design: Since 1948
• 34:00 The Gaza Envelope: Settler Fortresses as Siege Tools
• 37:30 The Tunnel Network: History, Ingenuity, Resistance
• 42:00 From Wells to Warfare: Indigenous Knowledge Reborn
• 45:00 Hollow Land: Origins of Eyal’s Work
• 49:30 Architecture as a Tool of Oppression
• 53:00 How Forensic Architecture Builds the Record
• 57:00 Rebuilding Gaza or Repeating Genocide?
• 1:01:00 The Only Just Future: Return, Equality, and One State