Planning a Palestinian Urban Core: the City of Ramallah
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Planning a Palestinian Urban Core: The City of Ramallah Rassem Khamaisi Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905 Israel In 1995, in the wake of the Oslo agreements, the En 1995, dans le sillage des Accords d’Oslo, les Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/9/4/242/1446322/arwg_9_4_tu3j11501l73u627.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 process of establishing a new Palestinian processus de constitution d’une Autorité pales- Authority on the road to statehood and a capital tinienne ainsi que d’une capitale furent lancés. city took root. Notwithstanding Palestinian En dépit des revendications palestiniennes sur la claims to East Jerusalem as its core and capital partie orientale de Jérusalem, le cœur et capi- of the emerging Palestinian state, the city of tale de l’État palestinien en gestation, la ville de Ramallah began to transform itself from a Ramallah commença entre-temps sa transforma- district city to national core, gradually develop- tion, passant du statut de ville régionale à celui ing as the de facto capital of the Palestinian d’un noyau national ; elle devint ainsi progres- Authority. This article describes and discusses sivement la capitale de facto de l’Autorité pales- the geopolitical forces and the structural and tinienne. Cet article décrit et débat des tensions socio-economic factors that drive and shape the géopolitiques et des facteurs structurels et urbanization process and urban growth and that socioéconomiques qui guident et façonnent les spurred and guided Ramallah’s transformation. processus d’urbanisation et la croissance It also analyzes the planning process for the city, urbaine menant à la transformation de including a number of the planning problems Ramallah. Il examine également les processus de faced in its further development. The article has planification pour la ville, ainsi qu’un certain four main sections. It begins by describing the nombre de problèmes d’urbanisme auxquels development of Ramallah area, now a part of Ramallah sera confrontée à l'avenir. L’article metropolitan Jerusalem. The second section est divisé en quatre parties. Il débute avec une discusses and analyzes the implications and description du développement de la région de consequences of various internal and external Ramallah, qui fait maintenant partie de l’ag- factors and their direct impact on the crystal- glomération du Grand Jérusalem. La seconde lization of the urban fabric of Ramallah. The partie examine les implications et les third section examines the dilemmas and the conséquences de divers facteurs internes et obstacles faced in the spatial urban planning of externes et leur impact sur la consolidation du Ramallah, a city that developed under circum- tissu urbain de Ramallah. La troisième partie stances of occupation, amid the dichotomous examine les interrogations et les obstacles influences of traditional and modern forces, and auxquels est confrontée la planification urbaine in the context of outsider intervention. A final de Ramallah, une ville qui s’est développée dans section summarizes the process of developing a un contexte d’occupation, tiraillée entre les master plan for the city of Ramallah. forces de la tradition et de la modernité, tout en étant soumise à des interventions externes. La Key words: Palestine, Ramallah, planning, new dernière partie récapitule les modalités en cours core pour l’élaboration du schéma directeur pour la ville de Ramallah. Mots clés : Palestine , Ramallah , planification , noyau urbain nouveau The Arab World Geographer/Le Géographe du monde arabe Vol 9, No 4 (2006) 242–261 © 2006 by AWG – The Arab World Geographer, Toronto, Canada Planning a Palestinian Urban Core: The City of Ramallah 243 Introduction analysis of the implications and conse- quences of various internal and external In Palestine there is an ancient tradition of factors and their direct impact on the crystal- urban development. The mid-20th century lization of the urban fabric of Ramallah, witnessed a neglect of this heritage, result- which transformed itself from a small tourist ing in great suffering for Palestinian devel- town into the main urban centre of the West opment. The 1948 war between Arabs and Bank and perhaps the core of the future Jews in Palestine touched off an exodus and Palestinian state. The third is an examination a wave of population movements that of the dilemmas and obstacles faced in the thwarted or disrupted organic development; spatial urban planning of Ramallah, a city this was accompanied by the imposition of whose development occurred under semi- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/9/4/242/1446322/arwg_9_4_tu3j11501l73u627.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 external control by Jordan and Egypt, which occupation, amid the dichotomous influ- led to an orientation toward Amman and ences of traditional and modern forces, and Cairo. Under Israeli control, Palestinian in the context of outsider intervention. Much cities became disconnected from the urban of this development took place in response cores of the neighbouring Arab states to top-down influences, in contrast to the (Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon). Since organic, bottom-up development on “native” 1995, when control of Palestinian cities and land-ownership factors. Finally, the arti- passed to the Palestinian Authority (PA), cle summarizes the process of developing a these urban centres have all flourished to master plan for the city of Ramallah.1 some degree. In 1995, in the wake of the 1993 Oslo General Framework agreements and the process of establishing a new Palestinian state, a new capital city took Urban planning can not be disconnected from root. Despite Palestinian claims on East the political, geopolitical, social, and nation- Jerusalem as the core and capital of the building processes of a country. Quite the emerging Palestinian state, the city of opposite: spatial planning, and the reorgani- Ramallah began to change and transform zation of the hierarchy of urban centres, itself from a district city into a national core, towns, and villages—including urban plan- developing as the de facto capital of the PA. ning—is a fundamental element of the This article describes and discusses the missions and strategies used by states to geopolitical forces that have guided promote development and to secure a national Ramallah’s transformation and analyze the balancing of internal integration and continu- planning process of this city, including a ity, while at the same time facing outside chal- number of the planning problems with lenges and regional and global competition. which it has been confronted. The reorganization of population distribution The paper has four main foci. The first and the spatial organization of localities is a description of the development of within the state is an integral part of the Ramallah and the surrounding area— national security of a state (Cave 1992). Some surroundings that have become part of countries have adopted the approach of metropolitan Jerusalem. Ramallah is one of centrality in spatial planning to reorganize the the main Palestinian centres, a city whose space within their borders. Others have growth particularly increased after the impo- allowed market forces to determine the struc- sition of Israeli closure in 1993 and the ture of the dispersal of localities, including establishment of the PA, given the subse- urban centres, in the state. In still other coun- quent establishment of official institutions tries, governments have consolidated policies and international economic agencies in of decentralization and allowed competition Ramallah. The second is a discussion and between cities, based on their relative The Arab World Geographer/Le Géographe du monde arabe 9, no 4 (2006) 244 Rassem Khamaisi advantages and disadvantages and according ethno-national demographics grew out of to development strategies demarcated and colonial British rule in the area. During the defined by local municipalities and local British Mandate in Palestine, Jerusalem forces, with only limited intervention from developed as a political, economic, and central forces. national urban centre, evolving into the polit- Planning processes occur only after a ical and economic core of the area as well as state has been established and gained sover- its cultural and religious core. In 1947, the eignty. A new nation-state reorganizes its United Nations Assembly partitioned population and economic activities within its Palestine into two states, Arab and Jewish, spatial boundaries, including the creation of under Resolution 181. The 1948 war between an urban core, if none existed prior to the Arabs and Jews, in the aftermath of this reso- Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/awg/article-pdf/9/4/242/1446322/arwg_9_4_tu3j11501l73u627.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 establishment of the new state. lution, led to the establishment of a Jewish The creation of a nation-state thus state with Tel Aviv as its urban core. This normally results in the creation of a new urban core began to develop in the 1930s, urban core, comprising the capital of the new even though the Israelis aspired to establish state and the institutions of a national move- Jerusalem as its political core after the 1948 ment. This urban core may include the institu- war. The Arab Palestinian state was not mate- tions of a representative political system, rialized, and the Palestinian territory outside such as a parliament, an executive house