Gaza: The Architecture of the Exception

Gaza is often described as a humanitarian crisis or a war zone.
This episode approaches it differently — as a political and institutional structure built over decades.

Across voices from history, international law, regional politics, and media studies, this gateway episode examines how Gaza came to function as a permanent exception: governed without consent, controlled without responsibility, and narrated without context.

This is not a complete account.
It is a point of entry into an archive.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro – Gaza as an architecture, not an accident
01:18 Benny Morris – 1948, Oslo, Camp David, and the absence of legitimacy
06:06 Zachary Foster – Occupation without end and the redesign of Gaza after 2005
09:35 Tamer Qarmout – The Arab Peace Initiative and rejected recognition
14:36 Tamer Qarmout – Regional instability and the risk of Gaza being sidelined
22:29 Mouin Rabbani – Two-state solution as slogan and political delay
26:26 Mouin Rabbani – Arab governments, repression, and calculated inaction
33:10 Dina Matar – Erasure of history, Nakba, and epistemic violence
39:16 Sharif Abdel Kouddous – Media framing and the removal of context
44:04 Dina Matar – Visibility, humanity, and whose lives are named
49:41 Zachary Foster – The cost of speech and criminalizing criticism
53:45 Archive Outro – This episode as a gateway and what comes next

Season One of Frontlines & Backrooms continues on February 15 with
“The Crime Not Meant to Be Hidden.”