The architect Tom Kay, who has died aged 72, was a mesmerising storyteller whose life was a great story too. He was an activist - his last professional-political project was in his birthplace, Palestine; he was an adventurer who loved motorbikes and deserts and foaming rivers; he was a conscientious objector who refused to do national service in the late 1950s; and he took part, with Pat Arrowsmith, in anti-nuclear action, sitting in a concrete mixer in Swaffham, Norfolk, to oppose the building of a Thor missile base......So back to the Jewish National Fund then.
While in Ramallah, Tom documented, in writing, photographs and sketches, what he witnessed. His flimsy frame, camera poised, would not yield to Israeli soldiers. His reports to the western press and on the world wide web were some of the first to show Israel's wanton destructiveness, and its use of planning and architecture to control the Palestinians.
March 27, 2008
Death of a Palestinian?
Not exactly headline grabbing stuff as Palestinians are dying or being killed all the time. This one had more opportunities in life than most. He was Tom Kay, architect and here's a chunk of his obituary in the Guardian:
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