the actual distribution of Jewish, Muslim and Christian populations in Jerusalem at the times indicated
mixed Moslem and Christian neighbourhood Jewish neighbourhood mixed Moslem and Jewish Arab Christian British Security Zone Green Zone Unplanned Areas
our projection of population distribution if the existing planning policy continues to be applied
VISIONS OF JERUSALEM
par tition segregation division isolation containment
urbanism | co - operative borders by jafar tukan
making a line into a space
The legacy of twenty years of total isolation between Israel and its neighbours and thirty years of occupation, has bred many negative realities. The legacy is a barrier not only of preconceived and highly generalised impressions, but also of irreversible facts on the ground, facts of political, economic and military power as well as an intense and forced settlement program in and around Jerusalem, uniquely for Jews. Looking back, there was a time before 1948 when Jerusalem’s community was quite homogeneous, not in religion, but in culture. Through 300 years of Ottoman occupation, and then under the British mandate, Moslem, Christian and Jewish residents of Jerusalem lived together. Ethnic neighbourhoods were united in commerce and trade. When the strength of the zionist movement in Europe increased and the 1917 Balfour declaration was made, promising the Jews a homeland in Palestine, an influx of European Jews moved into Jerusalem. A few years before 1948, Zionist underground movements intensified their violence and a dark cloud started to loom over Jerusalem. Movement within the city became less and less free until 1948 when the city was divided by a physical wall and a strip of no-man’s land separating Arab East Jerusalem from Jewish West Jerusalem. While East Jerusalem retained its slow, low-rise rate of growth, across the wall and the no man’s land strip, one could see the transformation of West Jerusalem taking place, a dense high-rise rapid growth, totally unlike the old, un-partitioned Jerusalem. In June 1967, the Israeli army took over all of Jerusalem, tearing down the wall and ‘unifying’ the city. The unification was administrative and physical. However, it actually not only kept, but deepened Jerusalem’s ethnic division.
A rapid growth of settlement surrounded the city. As settlements such Gilo and Maale Adomim grew, administrative restrictions were imposed on what had been Arab East Jerusalem, adding to its isolation, ethnic separation and slow suffocation. Movement in and out of the eastern city centre become more restricted for security reasons. Tensions ran high, desperation increased and the uprising of 1987 started. While the events of the uprising led to the Oslo Accord of 1992, the accord has, over five turbulent years, increased the distance between the Jewish community on the one hand, and Moslem and Christian communities on the other. It has also depressed the economic, educational and social conditions of the latter to unprecedented levels. The Oslo Accord, which in the beginning held promise of coexistence and peace, suffered from a series of setbacks and an unprecedented acceleration in the construction and expansion of settlements primarily around Jerusalem and further into the Arab lands in the West Bank of the River Jordan. According to a report by the Ir. Shalem – a non-profit organisation affiliated with Peace Now – Jerusalem shows that ‘of the total area of East Jerusalem prior to expropriation, approximately 7.3% only is available for residential construction and approximately 0.6% for commercial and industrial construction. The remaining areas are zoned for various needs that do not enable private sector exploitation or are unplanned areas. Consequently, less than 8% of the area of East Jerusalem is available to the Moslem and Christian Palestinian sector for any kind of private sector development’.1
66 On Site review 22: WAR
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator