Ungrounding cover art

Ungrounding

The Architecture of Genocide
Pre-order: Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Ungrounding

By: Eyal Weizman
Pre-order: Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Pre-order Now for £27.99

Pre-order Now for £27.99

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Written while the organisation he directs, Forensic Architecture, works to produce evidence for the International Court of Justice’s genocide case against Israel, in Ungrounding Eyal Weizman explores the larger geographical and historical context, from the displacement of the Nakba in 1948 to the present day. In unflinching and forensic detail, Ungrounding shows how architectural and territorial analysis is key to understanding the relationship between the coloniser and the colonised.

It is an extraordinary and eye-opening journey through the ‘deep cartography’ of the area extending from Gaza’s subterranean tunnels through to its militarised topography, settlements and barriers. Territory is never a neutral backdrop nor the location within which a colonisation takes place. Instead, it is a mechanism by which colonisation is undertaken and key to understanding how Israel’s attack on Gaza in the wake of 7 October has escalated into violence so extreme as to, Weizman argues, meet the definition of genocide.

© Eyal Weizman 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Architecture Israel & Palestine Middle East Politics & Government War & Crisis World

Critic reviews

Ungrounding by Eyal Weizman proves that decolonisation is not revenge but a condition for justice and, in the end, for the liberation of both Palestinians and Israelis (FRANCESCA ALBANESE)
In the face of overwhelming state violence, forensic architecture is becoming an indispensable tool of international law and human rights, as well as a new approach to history. Ungrounding is a work of profound moral clarity and scientific precision, based on years of tireless collaboration and advocacy. Urgent and essential reading (DAVID WENGROW)
A wake-up call to the world and the international community – a very important book (SHAWAN JABARIN)
Ungrounding leads us between layers of earth and history, soil and infrastructure, elucidating both the long story of Israeli aggression against Gaza and the histories of Palestinian resistance . . . Weizman cuts through obfuscations and horror, and helps us to see something of the truth (ISABELLA HAMMAD)
Eyal Weizman’s work has long manifested a unique combination of moral passion and scientific rigour. It makes him, as Ungrounding shows, a formidable adversary of technically sophisticated regimes of violent dispossession. No further evidence of Israeli genocidal acts and intentions in Gaza would be necessary after this shocking report (PANKAJ MISHRA)
A timely and crucial contribution tracing the trail of the Israeli architectural, ecological and infrastructural destruction of the Gaza Strip. The ruthlessness and inhumanity detailed in this extraordinary book, nonetheless, also hold hope for turning the future soil and grounds into spaces of liberation and reconciliation (ILAN PAPPÉ)
Ungrounding powerfully reveals the architecture of the genocide in Gaza within its century-long context. But with a forensic architect’s precision, Weizman excavates, reassembles and ultimately lays the foundations for an architecture of liberation (TAREQ BACONI)
Ungrounding is a brilliant, shocking and urgent book for our times, as well as a precious warning to future generations (YANIS VAROUFAKIS)
No reviews yet