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MULTICULTURALISM, NATIONALISM, AND THE POLITICS OF THE ISRAELI CITY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Haim Yacobi  and
Erez Tzfadia
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Extract

One of the central issues in the study of urban politics today is the fact that many cities have become multicultural arenas. The liberal viewpoint stresses the potential of the city—unlike other spaces—to offer many and equal opportunities for all residents regardless of religion, gender, or ethnic affiliation, but the critical body of knowledge highlights the ways in which the city, although apparently released from the shackles of nation- and state-building projects, continues to reproduce existing power structures and is a stratifying place, maintaining patterns of discrimination, exclusion, and segregation. This tension between the city as an enabling space versus the city as a reinforcer of socionational stratification is at the center of this article.

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Articles
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International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , May 2009 , pp. 289 - 307
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

NOTES

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23 The initiative to develop a new port town began as early as 1949, but it was postponed for planning and political reasons. The location of the port in Ashdod was the subject of disagreement between the planners, who supported the idea, and the politicians, who wanted it to be located in Tel Aviv. The planners succeeded in getting the army and then the electricity corporation on their side in order to justify the establishment of the port in Ashdod. This served the planning view that expansion of Tel Aviv should be limited in favor of strengthening the spread of newer cities. In the beginning, dwellings were built for employees of the Electricity Corporation, and later on immigrants began to arrive, mainly from the Middle East. For more details, see Efrat, Haproyekt Haʿyisraeli, 903–908.

24 The company's request was supported by the Planning Department and the Ministry of Finance. However, as argued by Eliezer Brutzkus, the land granted to the company, as well as its limited obligations regarding planning and development, left the government with the task of development and construction. Brutzkus is highly critical of this issue in his writing:

As the area of land granted under the license was exaggerated, so too was the program for planning the city determined by the city's developers. The demographic target set for planning purposes—250,000 residents—strayed greatly from any reasonable demographic framework . . . the results of over-imagination and an exaggerated target are easily felt in the city's planning, in the sense of land available that is above and beyond the reserves needed for the city's development, and in the location of the main city center at a significant distance from the port and from the city that actually exists (Efrat, Haproyekt Haʿyisraeli, 928).

25 Beyond the division of Arabs from Jews, Jewish society is also divided ethnically between Mizrahim and Ashkenazim. Mizrahi Jews are immigrants and their descendants whose origins are in Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Many Mizrahi immigrants arrived in Israel in the 1950s. Ashkenazi Jews comprise the dominant or “core” Jewish collective in Israel. Most Ashkenazim immigrated to Israel from Europe and America during the prestate period or immediately after 1948, founding and constituting Jewish culture and nationalism in Israel. Another division within the Jewish society is between the secular and ultraorthodox, or Haredi, Jews. The latter are ranked at the bottom of the class hierarchy and suffer from relatively little political representation, mainly because they are divided into Mizrahi and Ashkenazi sectors. See more on the cleavages in Israel: Smooha, Sami, “Class, Ethnic and National Cleavages and Democracy in Israel,” in Israeli Democracy Under Stress, ed. Sprinzak, Ehud and Diamonds, Larry (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1993), 309–42Google Scholar.

26 See Sharon, Arie, Physical Planning in Israel (Jerusalem: Government Printing Office, 1951)Google Scholar.

27 For example, Eben Ezer Howard's “Garden City of Tomorrow,” which proposes that a city should be built in empty space, without expanding and improving existing cities. See Fishman, Robert, Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier (Cumberland, R.I.: MIT Press, 1982), 6Google Scholar.

28 Kimmerling, Baruch, Immigrants, Settlers, Natives: The Israeli State and Society Between Cultural Pluralism and Cultural Wars (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 2004)Google Scholar.

29 Emil Yisrael, Mediniyut Tichnun HaMiskhar BaMerkhav HaIroni BeYisrael: Maʾar El Mul Shulayim (Trade Policy in Israeli Urban Space: Central Business District vs. Margins) (unpublished seminar submitted at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 2003).

30 Hertz, Jacob and Frankel, Uri, “Ashdod's New Planning,” in Ashdod, ed. Raʾanan, Boaz (Ashdod, Israel: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, 1990), 29–30Google Scholar.

31 The winning proposal—submitted by three French architects, Jean Ginsberg, Pierre Vago, and Martin van Trik—applied the principles agreed upon at the eighth Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne in 1951 in the city of Hoddesdon in England. The congress focused on the planning of city centers in Europe after World War II and critiqued the decentralist approach to city planning, which emphasized the need for high density construction and the need to create an urban core. See Efrat, Haproyekt Haʿyisraeli, 910.

32 Ashdod Company Ltd., “Ashdod—Master Plan, 1965,” in Greitzer, A., Tzilker, T., Kadmon, N., and Ron, T., eds., Ashdod (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University Press, 1976), 60Google Scholar.

33 Ibid., 59.

34 Hertz and Fogel, “Tichnun Hadash LeAshdod,” 29–30.

35 Developed by planners Yitzhak Perlstein and Arie Dudai (1957–1959).

36 Yiftachel, Oren, “Planning and Social Control: Exploring the Dark Side,” Journal of Planning Literature 12 (1998): 395–406CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Yacobi, Haim, “Architecture, Orientalism and Identity: A Critical Analysis of the Israeli Built Environment,” Israel Studies 13 (2008): 94–118CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Shenhav, Yehuda, The Arab Jews: A Postcolonial Reading of Nationalism, Religion, and Ethnicity (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

38 Cohen, Erik, “Development Towns—The Social Dynamics of ‘Planted’ Urban Communities in Israel,” in Integration and Development in Israel, ed. Eisenstadt, Samuel N., Yosef, Rivka Bar, and Adler, Chaim (Jerusalem: Israel University Press, 1970), 587–617Google Scholar.

39 Gordon, Milton M., Assimilation in American Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), 66Google Scholar; Brubaker, Rogers, “The Return of Assimilation? Changing Perspectives on Immigration and Its Sequels in France, Germany, and the United States,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 24 (2001): 531–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kymlicka, Will, “Nation-building and Minority Rights: Comparing West and East,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 26 (2000): 183–212CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 Brubaker, Rogers, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (London: Harvard University Press, 1992), 81Google Scholar.

41 Sandercock, Towards Cosmopolis; Watson, “Deep Difference.” In relation to Ashdod, see Aharon-Gutman, Meirav, “Silence We Will Have When We Die; Now It's the Time for Living,” Planning 2 (2005): 55–74 (in Hebrew)Google Scholar.

42 Rachel Kallus and Hubert Law-Yone, “National Home/Personal Home: Public Housing and the Shaping of National Space in Israel,” European Planning Studies 106: 765–79; Yacobi, “Architecture, Orientalism and Identity,” 94–118.

43 An example is the journal Architecture d'aujourd'hui that issued a special edition (106) in 1963, which included both a tribute to Le Corbusier and a presentation of Israeli projects.

44 Eliezer Brutzkus, “Ashdod: Haraʾayon Vehagshamato” (Ashdod: Idea and Realization), Alon HaIgud LeTichnun Svivati (Journal of the Israeli Association of Planners) 10 (1969), in Efrat, Haproyekt Haʿyisraeli, 925–28.

45 Feldi, Azgad, Tichnun Vemetziut baIr Hametuchnenet: Seker Ironi BeAshdod (Planning and Reality in Planned City—Urban Survey in Ashdod) (Jerusalem: Ministry of Housing, 1967), 25–28Google Scholar.

46 Cohen, “Development Towns,” 601–602.

47 Feldi, Tichnun Vermetziut baIr Hametuchenet, 25.

48 A survey from 1967 shows that only 10 percent of the city's residents came to Ashdod because they liked the place. Furthermore, roughly half of the Israeli-born residents of the city stated that they wished to leave, compared to roughly a quarter of the immigrants. Indeed, this data faces several problems because there are no data for other places in Israel. See Feldi, Tichnun Vermetziut baIr Hametuchenet, 28.

49 The tenth category denotes a high socioeconomic ranking and the first, a low ranking.

50 Central Bureau of Statistics, Characterization and Ranking of Local Authorities According to the Population's Socio-Economic Level in 2001 (Jerusalem: Central Bureau of Statistics, 2004), 38. The ranking of local authorities in Israel is based on a weighting of a range of socioeconomic data in order to create an indicator of the socioeconomic status of the authority's residents.

51 Feldi, Tichnun Vermetziut baIr Hametuchenet, 25.

52 Greitzer et al., Ashdod.

53 Feldi, Tichnun Vermetziut baIr Hametuchenet, 28.

54 Lefebvre, Henri, The Production of Space (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991), 382Google Scholar.

55 Central Bureau of Statistics, Ultra-Orthodox Jews: Geographic Distribution and Demographic, Social and Economic Characteristics of the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Population in Israel, 1996–2001 (Jerusalem: Central Bureau of Statistics, 2004), 63.

56 Shanahan, Suzanne and Olzak, Susan, “The Effects of Immigrant Diversity and Ethnic Competition on Collective Conflict in Urban America: An Assessment of Two Moments of Mass Migration, 1869–1924 and 1965–1993,” Journal of American Ethnic History 18 (1999): 40–64Google Scholar.

57 Reuven Kaplan, “Rova Vav Mithared” (Neighborhood F Is Becoming Haredi), Hadsot Ashdod, 20 July 2005, 3.

58 Reuven Kaplan, “Harav Efraim Weber: Be-2015 Rosh Iriyat Ashdod Yhiyeh Haredi” (Rabbi Efraim Weber: In 2015 the Mayor of Ashdod Will Be a Haredi), Hadsot Ashdod, 3 September 2005, 1.

59 Lustick, Ian S., “Israel as a Non-Arab State: The Political Implications of Mass Immigration of Non-Jews,” Middle East Journal 53 (1999): 417–33Google Scholar.

60 Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, Distribution of Immigrants in Localities, 1989–2005 (n.p.; n.p., 2006).

61 Ruhama Maman, “Hauchlusiya Shel Ashdod” (The Population of Ashdod), in Raʾanan, Ashdod, 31–34.

62 For a detailed analysis of government interventions in the geographic regulation of Russian immigrants, see Tzfadia, Erez, “Immigrant Dispersal in Settler Societies: Mizrahim and Russians in Israel under the Press of Hegemony,” Geography Research Forum 20 (2000): 52–69Google Scholar; Alterman, Rachelle, Planning in the Face of Crisis: Land Use, Housing and Mass Immigration in Israel (London: Routledge, 2002)Google Scholar.

63 Four thousand residents of Ashdod create a transnational bridge to Russian politics through their right to vote in elections for the parliament in Moscow, the Duma. They exercise this right in a special polling booth operated just for them. See Yossi Asulin, “Ashdod Matzbiʾah Kremer” (Ashdod Votes Kremer), Zman Darom, 12 December 2003, 24–25. The Russian day of victory in World War II is celebrated by veterans in Ashdod at memorials built in the Russian neighborhoods. Christmas is fully celebrated in neighborhood M every year. See Daniel Ben-Simon, “Fear of Concessions,” Haaretz (29 December 2000), B3. On weekends, partygoers from the FSU frequent one of three venues with the atmosphere, music, and food of home: “Korona,” “Yurmela,” and “Crazy,” where there are no non-Russian immigrants to be found. See Ronen Sharon, “Oh Ima Russia” (Oh, Mama Russia), Zman Darom, 19 May 2000, 50–53.

64 Daniel Ben-Simon, “Million Boharim Mechapsim Koach” (Million Voters Search for Power), Haaretz, 26 February 2006, B4.

65 Tzfadia, Erez, “Public Housing as Control: Spatial Policy of Settling Immigrants in Israeli Development Towns,” Housing Studies 21 (2006): 523–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

66 Yael Gvirtz, “Sharanski Yish Halash: Yichlu Oto Kmo Shachlu et Lerner” (Sheranski Is Weak. He Will Be Eaten Just Like Lerner), Yediot Ahronot, 21 January 1999, 20–21.

67 Until 1990, 34 percent of the workforce was employed in industry. See Yisrael, “Trade Policy,” 20.

68 Eli Buhadana, “Gam Ashdod Nichnesa Lereshimat Haʾavtala” (Ashdod Entered the List of Unemployment), Maʾariv, 15 August 2000, 12.

69 Anat Tal-Shir, “Hamahapecha HaRussit” (The Russian Revolution), Yediot Ahronot, 4 May 1999, 18–19.

70 Ibid.

71 Gvirtz, “Sharanski Yish Halash.”

72 “Israel is Our Home” is a political party identifying with FSU immigrants, headed by Avigdor Lieberman, a powerful, hawkish politician in the Russian community in Israel.

73 Tal-Shir, “Hamahapecha HaRussit.”

74 Reuven Kaplan, “Reʾevim, Dhuyim Umushpalim” (Hungry, Rejected and Humiliated), Zman Darom, 8 September 2000, 20.

75 Reuven Kaplan, “Ma Kara CeshTzilker Histakel Barei?” (What Happened When Tzilker Looked at the Mirror?), Zman Darom, 15 September 2000, 54.

76 Reuven Kaplan, “Transfer VeMaher” (Rapid Transfer), Zman Darom, 1 November 2002, 58–59.

77 Young, Inclusion and Democracy, 204.

78 Yisrael, “Trade Policy,” 23.

79 Yiftachel, “Planning and Social Control.”

80 Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), 178–99.

81 Young, “Self-Determination,” 139–59.

82 An anti-Jewish riot that took place in Kishinev on April 1903. The pogrom became a rallying point for early Zionists, who called upon Jews to immigrate to Israel/Palestine in order to avoid another pogrom.

83 The Egoz sank on 10 January 1961. It had been carrying forty-three Jewish refugees from North Africa to Israel.