From counter-maps to counter-evidence: Hebron Rehabilitation Committee's documentation as counter-archive

The Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC) has been the principal organization conserving and maintaining the built heritage of Hebron’s old city, Palestine, since 1996. In 2017, the HRC's documentation and rehabilitation work supported the listing of Hebron's old city—an Israeli-militarized site—as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Danger. The HRC's work is recorded in a small archive that functions as a vessel rather than a vault . As with the fluctuating roles the HRC members assume—architects, archivists, advocates, and activists—the archive serves different functions depending on where and when it is used, who uses it, and to what end. This paper offers different readings of the documents assembled in the HRC's archive as they adapt and transform through their engagement with the lived reality of Hebron. It posits the ever-growing documentation as a “counter-archive”—one that defies the boundaries and logic of the “imperial archive.” The HRC's counter-archive plays a critical role in documenting the old city’s built heritage and the impact of the Israeli settler project on its socio-spatial terrain. Through the counter-archive, notions of power, heritage, and memory are continually examined. As the repository ventures into the world, its documents take on various forms of countering Israeli control. These documents are “counter-maps” when drafted by the HRC’s engineering unit. When they are digitized and shared more widely through various channels and platforms, they become “counter-heritage”—a voice that reclaims and advocates for the Palestinian presence. When they are presented to the court as proof of homeownership, they serve as “counter-evidence.” Whether in the engineering office, the digital realm, or the courthouse, the documents are bottom-up architectural media grounded in the HRC's embodied, physical presence on site, countering the larger hegemonic settler project within which the city is situated.