Infrastructure Scape

INFRASTRUCTURE SCAPE



The infrastructure of Jerusalem is heavily based on the exclusive zoning of land according to neighborhoods, demonstrating a large socio-economical gap between different classes in the city. Since the annexation/reunification of Israel in 1967, extreme measures in zoning have been planned resulting in the confiscation of Palestinian land in order to extend the municipal boundaries and invite the Jewish population. Different tactics have been staged in order to suppress the Palestinian population and increase the Jewish population to a desired ratio of 70:30 between the two ethnicities by the Israel municipality. Israeli long-term construction operations to create Jewish neighborhoods include the expropriation of previously Arab neighborhoods including Ramot, East Talpiot and Gilo, which all strategically surround the border between East and West Jerusalem. More recently during the E1 development plan by the Israeli municipality, originally an Arab town was demolished to create Har Homa, leaving a large fraction of the population out of homes. These steps are all a product of Israeli urban planning expressing Israeli sovereignty, allowing Jewish communities to prosper while obstructing Palestinian development.

The Israeli bureaucracy plays a key role in the zoning, infrastructure and living conditions of the Arab communities in Jerusalem, strategizing the suppression of the Arab population and orchestrating reasoning for the discrimination caused by these geographical changes. These general zoning laws seep their way on a personal level to the Arab population creating conditions of dense borderline poverty, hardly having a village appeal that the Israeli government speaks out to preserve through urban planning. With the influx of funds from the Israeli government, modern transit ways and public transportation routes run through West Jerusalem and it’s outlying Jewish neighborhoods. With the Hebrew University, Government Buildings, Hadassa Hospital and French hill located directly north and north east of our site there exists a divide in public transportation servicing, voiding service completely to the Palestinian neighborhoods to the south and instead, routing around these neighborhoods to the City Centre. In addition to this polarized condition of public transit within Jerusalem, the roads that service the Mt. Scopus and French Hill area are completely removed from the Palestinian neighborhood Wadi Joz. A heavy retaining wall emphasizes a drastic elevation difference and blocks this servicing road from Wadi Joz completely, making intersections impossible. The residents of the Palestinian communities find themselves bypassing around their neighborhoods and walking to Israeli established areas in order to reach public transportation and to access the main roadways.