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Zones of Transformation? Informal Construction and Independent Zoning Plans in East Jerusalem

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  • Michal Braier

    (Department of Politics and Government, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel)

Abstract

Since the occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967, state-endorsed planning policies of restriction and demolition have had a profound oppressive effect on Palestinian urban development and political activity in the city. While the effects of this oppression have been widely discussed, this paper offers a closer look at ‘ground-level’ planning processes. The analysis of independent local zoning plans submitted by Palestinians to legalize and expand their houses reveals a wider range of activity, negotiations, and inconsistencies. I argue that the practice of the independent plans, as small-scale yet unmediated acts operating from within the institutional planning system, presents a form of encroachment on the bureaucratic apparatus. While the ‘spot-zoning’ amendment to the planning and building law originally resulted from pressures to promote free-market logic in urban planning practices, it unwittingly opened up the possibility for excluded and subordinated residents to pursue a new course of action. Thus, the concurrent tendencies of the Israeli planning system towards ethnonational goals, rational–comprehensive planning episteme, and the neoliberal logic have led to unexpected, at times contradictory, results. I claim that by dwelling on the inherent tensions between these tendencies, the independent plans work towards transforming the urban context into an arena for negotiating rights and positing demands that cannot be articulated in the political sphere.

Suggested Citation

  • Michal Braier, 2013. "Zones of Transformation? Informal Construction and Independent Zoning Plans in East Jerusalem," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(11), pages 2700-2716, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:45:y:2013:i:11:p:2700-2716
    DOI: 10.1068/a46250
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Nurit Alfasi, 2006. "Planning Policy? Between Long-Term Planning and Zoning Amendments in the Israeli Planning System," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(3), pages 553-568, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Hanna Baumann & Manal Massalha, 2022. "‘Your daily reality is rubbish’: Waste as a means of urban exclusion in the suspended spaces of East Jerusalem," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(3), pages 548-571, February.
    2. Jonathan Rokem & Marco Allegra, 2016. "Planning in Turbulent Times: Exploring Planners' Agency in Jerusalem," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 640-657, May.

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