par Fisher, Axel
Référence Urban Transformations: Controversies, Contrasts and Challenges (14th IPHS Conference: 12-15 juillet 2010: Istanbul, Turquie)
Publication Non publié, 2010-07
Communication à un colloque
Résumé : 7. The concrete expression of the Zionist colonization of Palestine started in the late 19th century is generally considered to coincide with the establishment of a collective-farming settlement network. However, during the British Mandate, the Zionist settlement policy was also active in the urban realm, as in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. Rather than insisting on the controversial entanglements of Zionism with the physical colonization and appropriation of Arab lands, this paper proposes to discuss from a comparative perspective the role of imported models in promoting Palestine's modernization process and establishing a nation-wide industrial network. It is interesting to note in fact that even if the urban transformations it fostered were widely inspired by imported European planning models and theories, the Zionist settlement policy did not follow a single consistent line of development. At least four different and sometimes competing visions of the built environment were pursued to promote different geo-political goals and groups of interests within the Zionist movement; the construction of a network of collective-farming settlements as part of an anti-urban ideal; the development of Tel Aviv as a 'bourgeois metropolis'; the establishment of 'working-class' port-city in Haifa; the building of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem as a highly symbolic and representative institution. Significantly, both the first collective-farming settlement (Degania) and the first residential neighbourhood of Tel-Aviv were founded in 1909. Similarly, the same architects and planners were contemporarily involved in drawing schemes for several of the cited competing visions. Each of these strategies needs much further investigation, to clarify the part played by architecture in enacting them. Zionist planning experiences took place at a time when fast paced modernization process urged British Mandate Palestine and similar neighbouring Mediterranean cities to usher in their industrial stage of development.