Abstract:
The tension between modernity and tradition
has played a major role in the subjugation of
the Palestinian populations of Israel. It has
confirmed the State of Israel's insistence that
their backwardness renders them unfit for
serious dialogue with a modern western state.
The "Arab village" is the spatial
representation of this attitude, the
embodiment of a traditional and
underdeveloped modus Vivendi (Eyal, 2003).
Its vernacular pattern presents a negative
rural tradition of backwardness deriving from
Palestinian submissiveness (Rosenfeld, 1964;
Lustick, 1985). The Palestinians themselves,
however, tend to romanticize their past by
imagining it mainly within a framework of
village life (Hasan, 2005; Tamari, 2007).
Within this context of city/modernity vs.
village/tradition, the paper examines current
Israeli Palestinian's claims to the city as
translated into new urban forms and politics.
It focuses on an emerging urban vernacular
and its potential challenge to the discourse
and political practices of the Arab village. The
paper examines the re-establishment of Arab
urban life in an area of Haifa built by the
German Templers at the end of the 19th
century and recently renovated. The German
Colony lies along a main north-south artery
which is still an important axis linking the sea
on one side with Mount Carmel on the other
via the newly rehabilitated Bahai Gardens.
After many years of inertia, Haifa Municipality
began restoring the area in the late 1990s
during the euphoric days following the Oslo
Accord, the aim being to attract tourists. The
project, funded by the Ministry of Tourism
and fueled by the newly developed Bahai
Gardens, consisted mainly of restoring the
public infrastructure in the expectation of
attracting private investors. Following the
Palestinian Intifadas and the escalation of
terrorist attacks, the project, almost
completed, was about to collapse, but little by
little new bars and restaurants were opened
by local Arab investors. This new urban area
has attracted Arab and Jewish Israelis from all
over the country, and has become a major
place of leisure for the Palestinian of Haifa
and the northern region of Israel.
The paper investigates the adaptation of
vernacular form to new cultural meaning
through the emergence of new forms and
practices that re-establish Palestinian urban
life. It examines the continuity/discontinuity
of traditions, their role in creating a
vernacular in the midst of a modern city, and
how they give new meaning and authenticity
to ethno-national aspirations.
