Reproduction of Palestinian Heterotopic Space: Encountering First Wave of Covid-19 in East Jerusalem

Abstract: This article was written during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in East Jerusalem between March and June 2020. It discusses how the Palestinians approached the pandemic within the context of occupation, and how they used their power to reproduce what Henri Lefebvre called heterotopic spaces. People articulated these spaces accumulatively as they sought meaning in their daily lives, while managing the pandemic and benefitting from their previous experiences during their struggle against Israeli occupation. Thus, the aim is to shed light on the evolving role of civil society to support local action in dealing with a pandemic and to understand COVID-19 from peoples’ perspective rather than from a top-bottom lens in occupied cities. The methodology is multilayered: We use theoretical concepts of heterotopic spaces and analyze them through the social/societal, the temporal/historical, and the spatial/geographical forms of knowledge borrowed from Michel Foucault, Henri Lefebvre, and Edward Soja. It also builds on participant observation, official and media sources, and semi-structured interviews conducted with heads of committees of the Jerusalem Cluster community initiative. Accordingly, the study illustrates how the voices of the people become more significant in taking a leading role in a pandemic crisis in an occupied city.