Jerusalem’s ‘City of David’: The Politicization of Urban Heritage

Wendy Pullan and Max Gwiazda

This study explores Israeli settlers’ ideological and physical uses of heritage sites in the ‘Holy Basin’ of Jerusalem. The study focuses on the ‘City of David’ archaeological park, at the foot of the Old City, as a prime example of far right settler associations’ increasing influence over the transformation of Jerusalem’s dense topography of historic sites. It investigates how the state-backed, private settler organisation El-Ad uses a wide array of tourist and heritage practices to extend the infrastructure of expropriation and occupation in East Jerusalem. The ‘City of David’ highlights how settlers use a number of architectural and landscaping strategies to appropriate lands in the historic core of Jerusalem. Through its aggressive heritage management El-Ad presents an exclusivist narrative to domestic and international visitors, repressing the Palestinian inhabitation and character of the area. We argue that the visual and spatial resources employed in this appropriation of heritage are critical to the settlers’ damaging success.

Further web links of potential interest to readers: www.alt-arch.org/

 

Publications:

W. Pullan & M. Gwiazda, ‘Designing the Biblical Present.’ In U. Staiger et al, eds., Memory Culture and the Contemporary City. Palgrave, 2009: 106-25

W. Pullan & M. Gwiazda. 2008. Jerusalem's 'City of David': The Politicisation of Urban Heritage. Conflict in Cities Working Paper n. 6.