Erasing Memories of Palestine in Settler-Colonial Urban Space

A mixed city or an ancient historical city? The malleability of heritage in rebranding Lydd

“…However, there are wildly varying demographics across the cities that hold this classification, ranging from a 30% Palestinian population in Lydd to only a 4.8% Palestinian population in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, which brings into question the precise benchmarks and purposes of this categorization (Central Bureau of Statistics, 2021aStatistics, , 2021b. Urban studies scholars have reiterated the falsity of this identity, noting how these cities are far from mixed, but rather are deeply segregated spaces (Hart, 2022;Hawari, 2019;Kolodney and Kallus, 2008;Monterescu, 2015;Pasquetti, 2019;Yiftachel and Yacobi, 2003). The lack of parity between mixed cities and the disjuncture between reality and the classification points to the need to understand this "mixed city" identity not as a neutral demographic label but as a political classification, one which can be molded to fit various narrative agendas.…”

THE PRESENCE OF THE ABSENCE: Indigenous Palestinian Urbanism in Israel

“…These included the military occupation of Palestinian cities (Lydda, for instance), ethnic cleansing (by violently pushing the local population out and/or threatening retaliation, ghettoization of the remaining inhabitants and enforcement of military rule in those areas), confiscation of Palestinian properties, demolition of cultural, political and religious centres, populating of now‐emptied houses with Jewish settlers, and re‐inscription of Palestinian urban landscapes as Jewish‐Israeli (see e.g. Yiftachel and Yacobi, 2003; LeVine, 2005; Yacobi, 2009; Mansour, 2013; Monterescu, 2015; Ben‐Arie, 2016; Hawari, 2019; Zoabi, 2019). In the aftermath of the Nakba, most displaced Palestinians were not allowed to return to their cities and became refugees either in the (then) unoccupied parts of Palestine (West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem) or in Arab countries (Massalha, 2003).…”

“…In the growing body of literature about the destruction of urban Palestine, scholars recount the ways in which the memory of flourishing and partially destroyed cities continues to live in discourse and practice. Those who endured the displacement and destruction share stories of lost homes, forced fleeing and devastated communities, as well as experiences of profound alienation from a once familiar and safe landscape (Kassem, 2011; Monterescu and Hazan, 2018; Eqeiq, 2019; Hawari, 2019; Zoabi, 2019). Beyond excavating a somewhat repressed past, the revival of stories about Palestine's urban life—using art, poetry and literature, through political activism, and in academic research, to name a few—can be seen as part of the broader trend of a Palestinian ‘return of history … as the process in which a dormant past … becomes a constitutive force in present collective consciousness and in envisioning the political future’ (Rouhana and Sabbagh‐Khoury, 2019: 528).…”