Wound Turbines for Political Dissent in Wadi al-Nisnas

Memories propel this essay traversing space and time to explore the Palestinian neighborhood of Wadi al-Nisnas in Haifa as a site for political dissent. The metaphor of a wound turbine helps in grasping how the loss of Palestine fuels resistance, whether through poetry, protest, or art in “the Wad.”  The Wad also provides a vista into the workings of the nation-state, namely its shifting of constitutive boundaries that distinguish “society” from “nature” and “citizen” from “enemy.” In recognizing the permeability of these boundaries, transforming the wounds that they inflict into political energy, the homeland can be imagined and lived as whole.