Settlement policy in an Israeli mixed city: A typology of displacement and its resistance

Abstract

Urban Studies from the Global North highlight the physical displacement of lower-income residents as urban development policies’ central transgression. However, looking only at the class-physical angle of displacement narrows our understanding of other aspects of power relations in space. This research focuses on Israel’s policy encouraging the settlement of middle-class Zionist associations in the city of Lydda. The study argues that in a state of ethnonational conflict, displacement has various manifestations: physical, political, religious, cultural and especially ethnonational. This policy causes long-term residents both hardships and benefits depending on their religious, ethnonational and class affiliations. Therefore, residents express different intensities and patterns of support, ambivalence, or resistance towards the policy. This study suggests a typology of displacement and its implications for different patterns of resistance. Moreover, it calls for scholarly recognition of displacement beyond physical and class aspects.