A Lethal Theory

“Walking through walls, ceilings, and floors” looks like an attractive statement for many, but it always leads the public to face the dark reality at their doorstep. Israel Defence Forces(IDF), in #Nablus (April 2002), were the believers of these micro tactical actions becoming a flexible/liquid medium for winning over #Palestinian forces. At the start of this essay, this content might be just a thin layer at the top, whereas the questions of how it’s related to #architectural theories are visible only go into roots.

The geographer Stephen Graham started the whole process of interlinking military operations and elite architectural academics by considering them in the “International shadow world”. A world that introduces academics of military and #architectural schools the same by not only believing in the ideologies of #Deleuze, #Guattari, and #Debord but also makes us ponder upon writings like Urbanism, poststructuralist and postcolonial theories. The admiration of it thousands of IDF soldiers and their Brigadier General Aviv Kokhavi made a change in contemporary urban warfare tactics. #Kokhavi when interviewed said, “ I Opted for the methodology of moving through walls like a worm that eats way forward emerging at points and then disappearing”, rather than following the classical-traditional tactics till we fall into booby traps. This means a non-directional, chaotic maneuver movement of forces through walls, windows, or even from ceilings was preferred over old-style geometrical street patterns.

The retired brigadier general and director of #OTRI(Operational Theory Research Institute), Shimon Naveh, also related some ideologies that were similarly applied before in places like #Kasbah, #Beirut, #Jenin, #Algiers, and #Hue. Majorly three of them included by IDF were:-

-?????Smooth and striated space: Considering urban fighting as spatial problem forces can go through the walls as a simple mechanical solution of ‘smoothness’, transgressing barriers and boundaries anywhere.

-??????Swarming from 360°: From all directions, a military can target an enemy like a “swarm”, with no form, no front, back, or flanks, but moves like a cloud of gas. Moreover, the “Swarm Intelligence” principle can help in problem-solving activities while getting inspired by agents like ants, birds, bees, or soldiers.

-?????Our generals are Architects: Admiration of #Tschumi’s book Architecture and Disjunction helped the generals not only gave tools for planning proper strategies for operation rather than a simple line on maps but also understand breaking single-perspective knowledge and centralized thinking.

The quote “Un walling off the wall” by Naveh gave the vision of how IDF is thinking for the present and future in the technological sector. This included shooting and killing through controlled destruction tactics where without breaking or walking through walls or deflecting bullet heads, the technology can penetrate any material(brick, wood, and adobe). This attempt at “smart destruction” and “sophisticated swarming” can save many civilians from injury, killing, and endangering. But, but, but does this helps to reverse the process of violence, humiliation, and trauma the community faces? I BELIEVE IT IS A NO!!!

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[November 2002; Sune Segal]:?Is it possible to even begin to imagine the horror experienced by a five-year-old child as four, six, eight, twelve soldiers, their faces painted black, submachine guns pointed everywhere, antennas protruding from their backpacks, making them look like giant alien bugs, blast their way through the wall??This was busted out by a #Palestinian mother in an interview where she told the destruction of everything when IDF blasted into their living room after bombing the wall. As a result of these situations, What is the sovereignty of a city or democracy in a house, or What is a public or private space? What's outside or inside? It's left as blurry questions to a community within a socially and physically destructive society.

This Lethal theory is an eye-opener for those unaware or has destructed history. It is time to WAKE UP!!!?