Cartographies of sacrifice: Mnemonic geography, martyr commemoration and the making of national space in palestine

This article theorizes Nablus, a Palestinian city in the contemporary West Bank, as a cultural geographic site that exemplifies a rich cartography of sacrifice wherein urban spaces become inseparable from memory and identity. Drawing on Palestinian scholarship on memory, spatial practice and everyday life, we argue that the Old City of Nablus functions as a counter-geography in which martyr memory, survival and belonging are continually inscribed and lived. Its memorial walls and improvised shrines operate as mnemonic devices and spatial archives that reflect a long history of collective loss and resilience. Space is often weaponized in Palestine: checkpoints disrupt continuity, surveillance causes anxiety and settlements continue to radically change topography. However, in Nablus, ṣumūd or steadfastness allows people to reclaim their city and reconstruct its national value by turning geography into a narrative of commemoration. Drawing on interviews with residents and analysis of graffiti, heritage signs and commemorative sites in Nablus's Old City (al-Balda al-Qadīma), we suggest that memory is actively performed when mourning is intertwined with everyday life, thereby materializing a living geography of sacrifice and endurance. The article concludes that Nablus is an enduring testimony to how Palestinian urban spaces resist erasure by transforming martyrdom into a spatial language that embodies persistence.