IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v45y2013i11p2700-2716.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • 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
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a46250
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a46250?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. 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.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nurit Alfasi & Talia Margalit, 2014. "The challenge of regulating private planning initiatives," Chapters, in: David Emanuel Andersson & Stefano Moroni (ed.), Cities and Private Planning, chapter 13, pages 269-294, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Feitelson, Eran, 2018. "Shifting sands of planning in Israel," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 695-706.
    3. Igal Charney, 2013. "The Entrepreneurial Turn in the Context of a Central State: Evasive Planning Regulation for Ikea in Israel," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(8), pages 1845-1857, August.
    4. Sebastian Schipper, 2015. "Urban Social Movements and the Struggle for Affordable Housing in the Globalizing City of Tel Aviv-Jaffa," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(3), pages 521-536, March.
    5. Nurit Alfasi & Talia Margalit, 2021. "Toward the Sustainable Metropolis: The Challenge of Planning Regulation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-21, July.
    6. Sundaresan, Jayaraj, 2017. "Urban planning in vernacular governance: land use planning and violations in Bangalore, India," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 86388, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Daphna Levine & Shai Sussman & Meirav Aharon-Gutman, 2022. "Spatial-temporal patterns of self-organization: A dynamic 4D model for redeveloping the post-zoning city," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 49(3), pages 1005-1023, March.
    8. Alfasi, Nurit & Migdalovich, Eyal, 2020. "Losing faith in planning," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    9. Stefano Cozzolino, 2020. "The (anti) adaptive neighbourhoods. Embracing complexity and distribution of design control in the ordinary built environment," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 47(2), pages 203-219, February.
    10. David Emanuel Andersson & Stefano Moroni (ed.), 2014. "Cities and Private Planning," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15788.
    11. Edwin Buitelaar & Maaike Galle & Niels Sorel, 2011. "Plan-Led Planning Systems in Development-Led Practices: An Empirical Analysis into the (Lack of) Institutionalisation of Planning Law," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(4), pages 928-941, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:45:y:2013:i:11:p:2700-2716. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.