The invasion of Beirut in 1982, the first and second Intifada, the Gaza withdrawal, an attempted assassination of Saddam Hussein, the Battle of Fallujah; almost every one of Israel’s major military tactics in the mid-East region over the past three decades was performed in advance here in Chicago, an artificial but highly realistic Arab town built by the Israeli Defense Force for urban combat training.

Chicago stands in the middle of the Negev desert. It is a ghost town whose history directly mirrors the story of the Palestinian conflict. To create this alternative universe, Palestinian architecture has been carefully scrutinized. Roads and alleyways have been constructed to mimic the layout of towns like Ramallah and Nablus. In one corner, the ground has been covered in sand, a reference to unpaved refugee camps like Jenin. Graffiti has been applied to the walls with obscure declarations in Arabic: “I love you Ruby” and “Red ash, hot as blood”. Burned out vehicles line the streets.

It is difficult to pinpoint what it is about this place that is disturbing. It is perhaps the combination of the vicariousness and the violence. It’s as if the soldiers have entered the enemy’s private domain while he’s sleeping or out for lunch, sifting through all his private belongings with too much curiosity. It’s a menacing intrusion into the intimate.

The military technique of “worming” attests to this sense of intrusion. Worming refers to the Israeli military technique of navigating urban areas by moving through walls, instead of along streets and alleyways where the soldiers are most vulnerable. This is achieved by the use of ultrasound devices which ‘see through’ the walls of houses. Once the soldiers have determined a space is safe, they blast a hole through the walls, creating channels through bedrooms and living rooms. Almost every wall in Chicago is punctured by a star-shaped hole, the stamp of a controlled explosion.

The clean lines and empty spaces devoid of the mess of human presence make it simpler for the trainee soldiers as they navigate the streets and buildings, emptying cartridges into false walls.

According to the Israeli Defense Force, Chicago was not based on a specific town, but is a generic ‘Arab’ place, designed by the soldiers themselves, building on their intimate experience of the minutiae of ‘Arab’ cities. This convention of using the name ‘Arab’, rather than Palestinian, effectively obscures identity, and in this sense Chicago as a ghost-town evidences the thread of denial that runs through much of Israeli discourse about relations with Palestine.

Walking through Chicago is akin to visiting a decommissioned film set, the props and furnishings stripped away to reveal its most basic components – the walls, the apertures for doors and windows, the streets. And it is here, in this parallel world, that the occupation of the Palestinian territories is played out by generations of Israeli soldiers, over and over again.

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin have been collaborating for over a decade and are still friends. They have produced six books which in different ways examine the language of documentary photography. For more information see www.choppedliver.info

The above is an extract from Chicago (Göttingen: SteidlMACK, 2006), originally exhibited at Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, with the support of Arts Council England. How to Live will be featuring images from Chicago throughout February.