A proposal to nominate Dheisheh, a Palestinian refugee camp near Bethlehem, as a Unesco World Heritage site has received a boost from an exhibition of photos in London.
The images, by Luca Capuano, an Italian photographer of architecture, challenge Western conceptions of Palestinian heritage and culture.
The Decolonise Architecture Art Research collective, known as DAAR, organised the exhibition to support its nomination of the Dheisheh Palestinian refugee camp for heritage status. The exhibition, “Stateless Heritage,” is on view at the Mosaic Rooms in London until January 30.
Capuano previously documented Italy’s World Heritage sites for Unesco. His images of Dheisheh portray the landscape and the ruin of Palestine’s oldest camp.
In one room, photo books documenting the 44 villages of origin of Dheisheh’s residents are placed on plinths of different heights. The books show how the Palestinians left these villages as Israelis occupied the land.