Israel’s planning historiography: interrogating spatio-temporal discourse and ‘whiteness’
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: In this study, I aim to critically examine the Israeli planning discourse related to the execution of the first national masterplan for Jewish population dispersion in Israel's history, the ‘Sharon Plan’. I argue that the discursive justification of the Population Dispersion Policy, as presented in Israel's planning historiography, provides planning, cultural, moral and economic advantages to the dispersion of Middle-Eastern and North African Jews (‘Mizrahi’ Jews), used to de-Arabise them as a project of ‘whiteness’. Subsequently, I analyse the three-dimensional language initiated in the Sharon Plan – Land, People and Time dimensions – though three main motifs: the ‘making the desert bloom’ motif, the modernistic progress motif, and the urgency motif. On a larger theoretical scale, I suggest reinvestigating how spatial design and national planning historiographies racialise social groups. Methodologically, I apply the Cultural Approach to Critical Discourse Analysis on a case study that engages the built environment, by assembling a corpus that includes the masterplan, Arieh Sharon's lectures and articles collected at the Azrieli Architectural Archive of Tel-Aviv Art Museum, and three planning and architectural exhibitions’ catalogues. I analyse the corpus by reading and observing every item to pursue shared motifs within the historical planning discourse.
Source: Planning Perspectives
Author: Matan Flum
Institution: University College London
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4404241359