Jerusalem Wall - A Decade of Division and Urban Incarceration

Jerusalem Wall - A Decade of Division and Urban Incarceration

The Impact of the Wall on the Palestinian Urban Space in East Jerusalem (Arabic, 2009)

The publication, co-written by five of IPCC’s researchers, is the first IPCC publication on the wall in Arabic. It focuses on the consequences of the establishment of the Separation Wall, which Israel began in 2002 and which excludes 65,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem from the rest of the city. As a result, Jerusalem has become isolated and marginalized. The book outlines changes imposed on Jerusalem and concludes with suggestions of how to address the city's urban problems through the development of Jerusalem's urban space.

Jerusalem Strategic Planning Series - Jerusalem The Old City: Urban Fabric and Geopolitical Implications (2009)

This study describes the physical layout as well as the demographic, socioeconomic, and administrative status of the Old City in Jerusalem, including the matrix of Israeli control in the Muslim and Christian quarters and its consequences. It examines the state of the Old City and explores possible scenarios for its future – some threatening, some promising. Ultimately, the most feasible geo-political intervention to avoid escalation of hostilities is identified, assuming that conflict escalation is an inevitable outcome of status quo.

Jerusalem Strategic Planning Series - Jerusalem and its Hinterland (2008)

The Evaluation of Cooperation Between Palestinian and Israeli NGOs: An Assessment (2007)

Successful Jerusalem: Vision, Scenarios and Strategies (2007)

This publication is based on nearly five years of work by the “Jerusalem Scenarios and Vision” group, a multidisciplinary team supported by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and coordinated through the International Peace and Cooperation Center (IPCC) and the Futura Institute. The project can be described as an intensive civil-society based dialogue on the future of Jerusalem between two teams of Palestinian and Israeli researchers under the framework of the “The Jerusalem Forum”. The teams developed a shared vision, possible scenarios for the future of the city, and a set of strategies designed to bridge the gap between each specific scenario and the vision. The publication is intended to call upon decision-makers (Palestinian, Israeli and international) and upon the public at large to realize that the situation in Jerusalem is unstable and dangerous and also to outline possible ways forward.

Jerusalem Strategic Planning Series - Jerusalem on the Map III (2007)

Jerusalem Strategic Planning Series - The Wall: Fragmenting the Palestinian Fabric in Jerusalem (2007)

This major publication focuses on the political, economic and social impact of the wall and its assault on basic human rights. The experts’ analyses are buttressed by the most recent data available, including case studies of twelve major enclaved Palestinian communities and a poll of over 1,000 Palestinian households. The publication presents new analytical perspectives based on updated data and data not previously available. Of the many books available on the wall, we believe that this study is the only one that not merely gives the facts but also offers arguments and discussions on the wall’s immediate effects and long term consequences. Further, this study is unique in that it reveals the dynamics of the Palestinian Jerusalem area: at the micro level, how the city works with respect to the movement of people, standards of living, access to services, interaction between communities, and within family structures; and at the macro level, East Jerusalem’s connections with its hinterland and the occupied Palestinian territories, including its historical role as the heart of the Palestinian culture. Much of the discussion takes place in the context of a local, national, and international Right to the City.

City of Collision: Jerusalem and the Principles of Conflict Urbanism (2006)

This publication is not available for download due to publisher copyright restrictions

The project "Grenzgeografien" [border geographies] is based on cooperation between the University of the Arts Berlin (UdK), Institute for Urban Design (ETH Zürich), Bezalel Academy of Art and Design (Jerusalem) and the International Peace and Cooperation Center (IPCC). Palestinian, Israeli, and international authors offer varying perspectives on the complex and ambivalent urban reality of Jerusalem. Thirty essays are complemented by new photographs and over forty detailed thematic maps capturing a city of permanent destruction and reinvention, of political planning strategies of resilience, of collective fear and individual exchange, of physical and mental walls and their transgression in the everyday life of the city.

Jerusalem Strategic Planning Series - Jerusalem City of Lost Peace: Geo-Political Proposals from the beginning of the 20th Century until the Unilateral Convergence Plan 2006 (Arabic, 2006)

The issue of Jerusalem is central to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Negotiations concerning the city’s future will be the most complicated in any future negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis. Scores of geo-political and administrative solutions have been proposed for resolving this issue; nonetheless, the search continues for a geo-political model acceptable to the various parties—one through which it is possible to fulfill the multiple contradictory interests of the conflicting parties. This study has sought to present and discuss the various proposals, models, arrangements or geo-political solutions that might lead to a settlement in Jerusalem. The authors have examined their political and functional ramifications, and perhaps most importantly, they have taken into consideration the position of Palestinians and Israelis towards the proposals. 

Jerusalem Strategic Planning Series - Conflict over Housing: The Housing Sector in Jerusalem - Existing Situation, Barriers, Needs and Future Policies (Arabic, 2006)

Housing and spatial control in Jerusalem are used by Israel as tools to guarantee its demographic and territorial superiority. This situation causes housing to be an essential part of the ethno-national conflict in the city, and housing controls are used to achieve Israeli goals at the expense of Palestinian national rights and the functions of daily life. The “Conflict over Housing” report describes in detail the overall housing scene in Jerusalem, including the population growth projection thru the year 2020 in East Jerusalem, migration from the hinterland, the resulting housing density, the future needs and social trends related to housing types and community relations. It illustrates the current housing deficiency and the obstacles in the way of obtaining permits for Palestinians and discusses house ownership issues.

Jerusalem Strategic Planning Series - Discrimination in the Heart of the Holy City (2006)

The discrimination suffered by the residents of East Jerusalem results from the concerted action of a number of State authorities, most outstanding of which are the Ministry of the Interior, the Israeli Police, the National Insurance Institute, the Labor Exchange and, of course, the Municipality. Each of these systems does its bit to keep East Jerusalem down, and all are party to its systematic deprivation. This publication focuses on the role of the municipal apparatus, which is the repository of very extensive powers and can largely determine what standard of living a Jerusalem resident will be vouchsafed.

Jerusalem in the Future: Scenarios and a Shared Vision (2005)

Jerusalem Strategic Planning Series - Jerusalem on the Map II (2005)

Divided Cities in Transition II: Challenges Facing Jerusalem and Berlin (2005)

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Divided Cities in Transition II is the second of a series of publications produced by the Jerusalem-Berlin-Forum (JFB), a trilateral German-Israeli-Palestinian cooperation project. Under the auspices of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, the JBF continues its ongoing dialogue, drawing together the varied professional experiences of two teams of researchers; one from Berlin, composed of former East and West Germans, and one from Jerusalem, composed of Palestinians and Israelis.The compilation includes a unique collection of social, economic, political, cultural and spatial studies, which provide a detailed overview of the day-to-day processes shaping the cities today and probably in the future. The researchers offer alternative hypothesis about real choices facing today’s urban planners, while demonstrating that meaningful, co-operative dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis is desirable and within reach.

Jerusalem Strategic Planning Series - The Wall of Annexation and Expansion: Its Impact on the Jerusalem Area (2005)

The world watches as Israel builds a 600-kilometer barrier around the West Bank, and through the Palestinian city of East Jerusalem and into the city’s surrounding Jerusalem Governorate areas. While a number of important studies of the effects of the barrier on the West Bank residents have been published, the impact of the Wall on East Jerusalem and its governorate has largely been ignored even though construction of the Wall is a crisis in the making. The Jerusalem barrier is in most sections a 10 meter-high concrete wall that fractures the urban and governorate fabric, splits neighborhoods, separates owners from their lands, denies social services to thousands, puts families asunder and vitiates commercial life. This report delineates these and other impacts of the Wall, including its political, economic, and social consequences. 

Divided Cities in Transition I (2003)

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Under the auspices of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, two teams of urban researchers and planners – one team from Berlin composed of former East and West Germans, and one team from Jerusalem, composed of Palestinians and Israelis – have been meeting together within the framework of the Jerusalem Berlin Forum (JBF). They are becoming acquainted with the social terrain of each other’s cities and sharing their experiences and expertise. “Divided Cities in Transition I” is the first fruit of their cooperation. The German team shares personal and professional experiences of the still unfolding process of becoming one society again. The Jerusalem team offers analyses of how things evolved in this conflict-ridden divided city and, if peace comes, what mechanisms can promote a transition to sustainable peace.

Jerusalem Strategic Planning Series - Jerusalem on the Map I (2003)

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The Jerusalem reality has changed tremendously in the last decade because of extensive Israeli settlement activity, road building, and the erection of barriers, all geared to create realities on the ground that will serve Israeli interests when the time finally arrives for a geo-political solution. Events at Camp David Taba, and the outbreak of the Al Aqsa Intifada demonstrated that the solution to the Jerusalem issue is central to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. And the realities on the ground today, most especially the fragmented Palestinian areas, have created an urgency to focus on Jerusalem. This publication presents contemporary data on the condition of occupied East Jerusalem, presents a synthesis of Israeli separation actions in the Jerusalem area, and reviews past negotiations on Jerusalem. A set of new maps have been developed in order to visualize the geographical consequences of the data and the trends.

Jerusalem Strategic Planning Series - Envisioning the Future of Jerusalem (2003)

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This volume is about the future of Jerusalem, the City and the District. Jerusalem is a rare metropolis: over the ages, a complex interaction of geographical, historical, religious, cultural, political and spiritual factors have produced a unique city; and the causes and consequences of the current long-running conflict between Palestinians and Israelis adds to its singularity. Together, these forces require that Palestinians assert their legitimate interest in the city and lay out their perceptions of its future. That task brought together an IPCC team of Palestinian and international planners whose goal was to envision the future of Jerusalem. They employed the Strategic Action Structural Planning method, a multidimensional approach that analyzes Jerusalem’s political, social, urban and economic processes from four perspectives: past, present, short term and long-term futures. The publication presents a futuristic urban planning strategy and a conceptual model developed by the IPCC team.

Jerusalem Strategic Planning Series - The Jerusalem Urban Fabric: Demography, Infrastructure, and Institutions (2003)

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This publication compiles research conducted on Jerusalem by a Palestinian multidisciplinary team of experts between 1998 and 2003. It is a data-rich compendium on the facts of the Jerusalem status quo, the situation on the ground, its people, its workings, and its institutions. It is a publication that seeks to avoid polemics and to be objective and informative on the conditions of urban life in this divided city. It offers a crucial preparatory element for the long-awaited “final issues” talks on the future of Jerusalem. While the authors share a vision of a Jerusalem that will be an open city and home to the capitals of two sovereign states, that “solution” is not elaborated here. Instead, the overarching effort is to provide those who will negotiate and define the fate of this fabled city a view if the area rooted in historical and empirical data. Viewed large, the seven studies included in this inaugural volume are the first step in a strategic plan to produce the facts from which negotiators and planners can begin.