Mixed cities: Difference between revisions

<noinclude>{{User:RMCD bot/subject notice|1=Mixed city|2=Talk:Mixed cities#Requested move 4 June 2022}}{{NPOV|date=June 2022}}'''Mixed cities''' ({{lang-he| ערים מעורבות|translit='arim me'oravot}}, {{lang-ar|المدن المختلطة|translit=al-mudun al-mukhtalita}}) or '''Mixed towns''' is an Israeli term for the eight cities in which a significant number of both [[Israeli Jews]] and [[Arab citizens of Israel|Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel]] reside.{{sfn|Tzfadia|2011|p=153}}{{sfn|Falah|1996|p=829|ps=: "The term 'mixed towns' is often used in Israel to describe those towns or cities that contain a substantial portion of Arab residents in their populations. In addition to the five cities stated in the present study, some Israeli studies include Jerusalem, Upper Nazareth and Ma'alot-Tarshiha in the same category (Benjamin, 1975; Romann, 1989: Graicer, 1992)."}} The term “mixed cities” should not be confused with [[Multiculturalism|multicultural cities]], nor understood to imply [[social integration]];{{sfn|Tzfadia|2011|p=160a|ps=: "Israeli mixed cities, particularly after 1948, cannot be perceived as multi-cultural cities, a point poignantly reflected in the absence of this term in the indexes of the reviewed books. Although localities were divided between the culturally distinctive Jews and Arabs, the cities still did not bear the potential to become multi-cultural. This absence of a multi-cultural vision in Israeli mixed cities impinges on the concept of “right to the city.” For example, Yacobi maintains that the Arab community in Lod does not enjoy freedom in the city—it lacks the legitimacy to maintain individual and collective identities and lifestyles, to take part in decision-making, and not to be excluded."}} scholars describe significant [[geographical segregation]] and [[social exclusion]] within each of the eight cities.<ref>{{cite book | editor=H. Yacobi and M. Nasasra| first=Yara|last=Hawari|chapter=Erasing memories of Palestine in settler-colonial urban space: the case of Haifa|title=Routledge Handbook on Middle East Cities | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2019 | isbn=978-1-317-23118-9 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d0agDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA117 | page=117|quote=This rejection of the "mixed city" notion by Johnny and others reflects the spatial reality on ground and the political and social marginalisation faced by the Palestinian community everywhere inside Israel… The narrative of continuous historical coexistence and a mixed present-day reality in Haifa serves to support Israel's self-image as a pluralist and democratic society. In addition to giving the settler-colonial reality legitimacy, the existence of mixed urban spaces leads many to assume that under the current structures of power, a shared life is possible. The reality, however, is a space in which both Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews live mostly separately and with vastly different experiences.}}</ref> Most Palestinian Arabs in mixed cities live in marginalized ethnic enclaves,{{sfn|Diab|Shdema|Schnell|2021|p=6|ps=: "Most Arabs live in marginalised ethnic enclaves"}} and studies have shown a significant inequality in municipal resource allocation, and wide socio-economic gaps in welfare, housing and education between the two communities.{{sfn|Tzfadia|2011|p=160b|ps=: "Israeli mixed cities, particularly after 1948, cannot be perceived as multi-cultural cities, a point poignantly reflected in the absence of this term in the indexes of the reviewed books. Although localities were divided between the culturally distinctive Jews and Arabs, the cities still did not bear the potential to become multicultural. This absence of a multi-cultural vision in Israeli mixed cities impinges on the concept of "right to the city." For example, Yacobi maintains that the Arab community in Lod does not enjoy freedom in the city--it lacks the legitimacy to maintain individual and collective identities and lifestyles, to take part in decision-making, and not to be excluded. Thus, Holston's (1999) project to oppose and undermine dominant narratives of the state within the urban framework and to create alternative local narratives that do not necessarily reflect the rationale of the nation, has failed in mixed cities in Israel."}}{{sfn|Yacobi|2009|p=1|ps=: "However, a critical examination forces us to question the term "mixed city," which might originally suggests the integration of society, while instead the reality is controversial. As in other cases of ethnonationalism, a clear spatial and mental division exists between Arabs and Jews in Israel, and hence the occurrence of "mixed" spaces is both exceptional and involuntary. Rather than occurring naturally, it has resulted from a historical process during which the Israeli territory, including cities that were previously Palestinian, has been Judaized. This book attempts to discursivelv undermine the term "mixed city," which raises images of mutual membership while ignoring questions of power, control and resistance."}}