In this blog Hamza Albakri discusses the recent walking workshop he ran in Ramallah, Palestine. The event was co-funded by the IJURR Foundation Majority Regions Workshop program.
Figure 1: participants walking in the valley, Batunia Area. Photo: Hamza Albakri, July 2026.
This workshop was part of a broader series on Anti-Colonial Research Methodologies organized by the Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute for International Studies in partnership with Al-Mada Association and The French Institute of the Near East (ifpo). The photos accompanying the text reflect the path of the walk.
The walking workshop took place in Wadi al-Dilb, a valley connecting the Al-Tireh area of Ramallah with the village of Ein Qinya. Once a vibrant landscape sustained by flowing water and agricultural labour, the valley has undergone significant transformation through both Israeli colonial practices and interventions by the Palestinian Authority. While the former contributed to the drying of the valley, the latter has left its mark through sewage water, accumulated waste, and half-finished infrastructure projects.
Figure 2: Participants walking alongside olive trees. Photo: Hamza Albakri. July 2026.
The participants, primarily master’s students and researchers, began the workshop with a silent walk. They were invited to identify an emotion they were currently experiencing, hold onto it, and observe how it evolved throughout the journey. Participants were also encouraged to follow a particular smell or sound and pay close attention to its presence and movement through the landscape. Along the way, they created personal maps on which they traced these emotions, sounds, and sensory encounters.
As the group progressed through the valley, participants were prompted to examine how colonization, power, and oppression manifested themselves within the landscape, whether through visible or more subtle traces. At several points during the walk, they paused to write immediate reflections or make audio recordings, documenting their observations and responses to the multiple layers of violence and control embedded in the environment.
In the final part of the workshop, participants climbed a hill in pairs and engaged in conversations imagining how the hill top – which is surrounded by Israeli colonies – and the experience of walking through it, might feel if the occupation were to suddenly disappear. This speculative exercise encouraged participants to think beyond present constraints and envision alternative futures.
Figure 3: Maqam/shrine Abu al-‘Aynayn. Photo: Hamza Albikri, July 2026.
During the collective debrief that followed, participants were invited to bring one element from the future they had imagined into the present by identifying something tangible and achievable in the here and now. The discussion then turned to the question of how research in Palestine, particularly during a time of genocide, might be conducted differently, and what anti-colonial approaches could offer as both a methodology and a political practice.
Figure 4: Participants reflecting on the walk around one of oldest maple trees in the area. Photo: Hamza Albikri, July 2026.
Links to partner organisations:
Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute for International Studies
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