The Urban Fabric and Geopolitical Implications

Editors: Rassem Khamaisi, Rami Nasrallah, Robert Brooks, Michael Yunan, Meir Margalit, Abdalla Owais

Publisher: IPCC, 2009

ISBN: 965-7283-16-7

This study has been produced by the International Peace and Cooperation Center in Jerusalem, an independent Palestinian NGO that focuses on urban studies of Jerusalem and the broader Jerusalem metropolitan area. The study is the first of its kind focusing on the Old City.

Chapter One outlines the historical development of the Old City and describes its physical layout as well as its demographic, socio-economic and administrative status. Additionally, significant attention is given to the nature of the Old City’s existing space, its purposes, urban functions and infrastructure services.

Chapter Two studies the impact of creeping urbanisation and gentrification in the Old City and its surroundings. It views those “rehabilitating” forces as a subversive effort to replace the multicultural Arab character of the Old City with essentially a Jewish culture. The chapter analyses the urban deterioration of East Jerusalem and its centre, the Old City and identifies the factors underlying the decline. It also describes the existing conditions and experience in the Old City, the prospect of revival, and an evaluation of proposals, including international intervention, to bring positive transformations to Jerusalem and to its functions. Statistical data capturing existing conditions in the Old City are presented in Appendix One.

Chapter Three provides an update on the matrix of the Israeli control in the Muslim and Christian quarters of the Old City, and it also discusses the methods by which Jewish settlers take over Palestinian properties. An updated survey of the Jewish settler presence in the Muslim and Christian quarters of the Old City is presented in Appendix Two.

Chapter Four reviews possible scenarios of geopolitical solutions for the future of the Old City, including the functional urban and spatial implications of each scenario. The review includes scenarios developed by Israeli and Palestinian think tanks, JIIS and IPCC respectively. While the scenarios are preliminary projections that require further research and field work, the chapter views the continuation of the status quo scenario as the worst case scenario. Many of the scenarios offer some limited improvement, but the suggested optimal or best case Old City scenario features Israeli and Palestinian cooperation and integration under an international regime.