Mixed cities (original) (raw)

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Eight multi-ethnic metropoles in Israel

Nof HaGalil, a mixed city adjacent to the Arab-Israeli city of Nazareth

In Israel, the mixed cities (Hebrew: ערים מעורבות, romanized: 'arim me'oravot, Arabic: المدن المختلطة, romanized: al-mudun al-mukhtalita) or mixed towns are the eight cities with a significant number of both Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs.[1][2] The eight mixed Jewish-Arab cities, defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics as those with more than 10% of the population registered as "Arabs" and more than 10% of the population registered as "Jews",[3][4] include the following seven Israeli cities: Haifa, Lod, Ramle, Jaffa (now a part of Tel Aviv), Acre, Nof HaGalil (formerly Nazareth Illit), and Ma'alot Tarshiha.[5] Approximately 10% of the Arab citizens of Israel live in these seven cities.[6] The eighth city is Jerusalem, in which the Arab part of the city, East Jerusalem, has been annexed by Israel but is not recognized as such under international law.[7]

The term "mixed cities" should not be confused with multicultural cities, nor understood to necessarily imply social integration.[8] The eight mixed cities are the main places in which Jews and Arabs encounter each other, and very limited population mixing exists in Israel outside of these eight cities.[9][10] As a result the topic has attracted significant scholarly focus over many years, and since the Second Intifada (2000–2005) it became the crux of social science scholarship in Israel.[1]

Cities in the 1922 census of Palestine, at the start of Mandatory Palestine. Most cities were 96–100% Palestinian Arab; only five cities were significantly "mixed": Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Safad and Tiberias.

Mixed cities shown in 1944

A modern Georgian synagogue, adjacent to the historic Church of Saint George and Mosque of Al-Khadr, Lod

In the early 19th century, only Jerusalem, Safed and Tiberias had small yet significant minority Jewish populations living alongside the majority Arabs. These populations grew to become about half the cities' populations by the start of the British Mandate. Immigration and settlement also took place on the outskirts of the cities of Jaffa (these outskirts later became known as Tel Aviv) and Haifa during the same period. As a result of the Palestinian expulsions and fleeing of violence during 1948, Safed and Tiberias were depopulated of all Palestinian Arabs and became exclusively Jewish, whilst Jerusalem was split into Jewish West Jerusalem and Palestinian Arab East Jerusalem. Of those "original" mixed cities, only Haifa remained mixed after the war. However, after 1948 only about 3,000 of its 70,000 Palestinian Arab residents remained in Haifa; these remaining Palestinian Arabs were then moved into small areas of the city by the new Israeli authorities.[11] Today, about 12% of Haifa's residents are Palestinian Arab.

Ramla, Lod, Jaffa and Acre became mixed as a result of the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight. These cities had almost 100% Palestinian Arab populations prior to 1948, but after the war only about 1,000 Palestinian Arabs remained in Ramla and Lod, and 13,000 in Acre, mostly in the poorest segments of society and initially restricted to segregated compounds under Israeli martial law.[11] Internally displaced Palestinians from other areas moved to the cities in subsequent decades; today Palestinian Arabs account for c.30% of Lod's population, c.25% of Ramle's, c.30% of Acre's, and c.5% of Tel Aviv-Jaffa.

The unique cities of Nof Hagalil and Ma'alot-Tarshiha became mixed through Israeli Arab influx and a municipal merger, respectively. In Nof Hagalil, the population is almost 30% Arab, but the municipality has refused to allow the building of any churches, mosques or Arabic-speaking schools.[12][13][14][15]

The term "mixed cities" should not be confused with multicultural cities, nor understood to necessarily imply social integration.[8] Yara Hawari describes significant geographical segregation and social exclusion within each of the eight cities, which contradicts "Israel's self-image as a pluralist and democratic society" and the "narrative of continuous historical coexistence".[16] Most Arabs in mixed cities live in predominantly Arab neighborhoods,[17] and studies have shown significant inequality in municipal resource allocation, and wide socio-economic gaps in welfare, housing and education between the two communities.[18][19] According to the New York Times, even towns "portrayed as models of peaceful coexistence fester with resentments born of double standards."[20]

In October 2021, following the May 2021 racial riots centered in the mixed cities,[21] the Israeli government approved a new five-year plan aimed at reducing years of state neglect of the inequalities between Jewish and Arab citizens, with an emphasis on addressing Israel's mixed city problems.[22]

| | Percentages[23] | Population[24] | Index of dissimilarity[25] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | ------- | ----- | ---- | ----- | --------------- | ----- | --------------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------------------- | | Ottoman Syria | | Mandatory Palestine | | Israel | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1872[26] | | 1922[27] | 1945[28][29] | | 1951[28][30] | 1990[28] | Current | | | | | | | | | | | | | Jews | Arabs | | Jews and Others | Arabs | Jews | Arabs | Jews | Arabs | Jews | Arabs | Jews and others | Arabs | Jews and others | Arabs | Total | | | | Current Mixed Cities | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Jerusalem (including occupied East Jerusalem) | 26% | 74% | | 55% | 45% | 62% | 38% | n.a. | n.a. | 72% | 28% | 61% | 39% | 584,352 | 366,797 | 951,149 | 96% | | Jaffa | 0% | 100% | | 42% | 58% | 30% | 70% | 98% | 2% | 96% | 4% | 63% | 37% | 29,000 | 17,000 | 46,000 | 82% (Tel Aviv-Yafo) | | Acre | 1% | 99% | | 3% | 97% | 0.4% | 99.6% | 73% | 27% | 77% | 23% | 67% | 33% | 33,331 | 16,171 | 49,502 | 2% | | Nof HaGalil (formerly Nazareth Illit) | n.a. | n.a. | | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | | 70% | 30% | 29,209 | 12,730 | 41,939 | 25% | | | Lod | 0% | 100% | | 0.1% | 99.9% | 0.1% | 99.9% | 93% | 7% | 79% | 21% | 70% | 30% | 56,789 | 24,142 | 80,931 | 73% | | Ramla | 0% | 100% | | 0.5% | 99.5% | 0% | 100% | 89% | 11% | 83% | 17% | 76% | 24% | 58,292 | 18,694 | 76,986 | 71% | | Ma'alot-Tarshiha | 0% | 100% | | 0% | 100% | 0% | 100% | 0% | 100% | | 78% | 22% | 17,251 | 4,870 | 22,121 | 79% | | | Haifa | 2% | 98% | | 26% | 74% | 55% | 45% | 95% | 5% | 91% | 9% | 88% | 12% | 249,773 | 33,963 | 283,736 | 74% | | Historical Mixed Cities | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Safed | 48% | 52% | | 34% | 66% | 20% | 80% | 100% | 0% | | | 98% | 2% | 36,692 | 781 | 37,473 | n.a. | | Tiberias | 64% | 36% | | 64% | 36% | 54% | 46% | 100% | 0% | | | 98% | 2% | 45,981 | 717 | 46,698 | n.a. |

According to publicist Afif Abu Much, the eight mixed cities are the main places in Israel in which Jews and Arabs encounter each other, and very limited population mixing exists outside of these eight cities.[9]

According to Ha'aretz in 2015, only 16,000 Arabs are thought to be living in the 16 localities not officially defined as mixed cities, or in Jewish neighborhoods of Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.[10] According to the 2020 population statistics the vast majority of other Jewish- or Arab-majority localities in Israel have between 0% and 1% of the other population group. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, the only sizeable exceptions are the Jewish majority cities of Eilat (5% Arab), Carmiel (4%), Qiryat Shemona (3%), Arad (3%), Beersheva (3%), Nahariyya (2%), Safed (2%) and Tiberias (2%), and the Arab-majority cities of Mi'elya (3% Jewish) and Jaljulye (2%).[31]

  1. ^ a b Tzfadia 2011, p. 153.
  2. ^ Falah 1996, p. 829: "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)."
  3. ^ Sadeh 2015, p. ii: "A "mixed city," according to the definition by the Central Bureau of Statistics, is one where at least 10% of the residents are registered as Arabs."
  4. ^ Diab, Shdema & Schnell 2021, p. 5: "In all mixed cities, Jews represent 70–90 per cent of the total population."
  5. ^ "Topic: Mixed Cities in Israel" (PDF). Inter-Agency Task Force on Israeli Arab Issues. 20 June 2014.
  6. ^ "Topic: Mixed Cities in Israel" (PDF). Inter-Agency Task Force on Israeli Arab Issues. 20 June 2014.
  7. ^ Karlinsky 2021, p. 1114: "Jerusalem presents a special case..."
  8. ^ a b Tzfadia 2011, p. 160a: "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."
  9. ^ a b Afif Abu Much (9 December 2020). "The New Mixed Cities". Tel Aviv Review of Books. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  10. ^ a b Sadeh 2015, p. iii: "Some 16,000 Arabs are estimated to be living in 16 cities not officially defined as mixed, or in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods of big cities such as Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv."
  11. ^ a b Rabinowitz, Dan; Monterescu, Daniel (1 May 2008). "RECONFIGURING THE "MIXED TOWN": URBAN TRANSFORMATIONS OF ETHNONATIONAL RELATIONS IN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL – International Journal of Middle East Studies". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 40 (2): 208–210. doi:10.1017/S0020743808080513. ISSN 1471-6380. S2CID 162633906. The Palestinian quarters of Safad, Tiberias, Haifa, Jaffa, and West Jerusalem and the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem were in a state of sociological catastrophe, with no community to speak of to even bury the dead and mourn the old existence... By late 1949 only one of the five towns that had been effectively mixed on the eve of the war, namely, Haifa, still had a Palestinian contingent. Even there, however, the urban mix had been transformed beyond recognition. The 3,000 remaining Palestinians, now representing less than 5 percent of the original community, had been uprooted and forced to relocate to downtown Wadi Ninas... More relevant for our concerns here are Acre, Lydda, Ramle, and Jaffa, which, although exclusively Palestinian before the war of 1948, became predominantly Jewish mixed towns after. All of them had their residual Palestinian populations concentrated in bounded compounds, in one case (Jaffa) surrounded for a while by barbed wire. As late as the summer of 1949, all of these compounds were subjected to martial law.
  12. ^ Emmett, C.F. (2012). Beyond the Basilica: Christians and Muslims in Nazareth. University of Chicago Geography Research Papers. University of Chicago Press. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-226-92249-2. Retrieved 15 May 2022. There are no churches or mosques in Upper Nazareth and there are no schools (other than a neighborhood kindergarten) in which Arabic is the major language
  13. ^ "High above Nazareth, an Israeli mayor wants to keep his city Jewish 'now and forever'". Washington Post. 20 September 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  14. ^ Kraus, V.; Yonay, Y.P. (2018). Facing Barriers: Palestinian Women in a Jewish-Dominated Labor Market. Cambridge University Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-108-24560-9. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  15. ^ Sadeh 2015: "The new mixed cities such as Upper Nazareth with its 20% Arab population have no Arab schools. In Upper Nazareth it’s because of the municipality’s opposition, led by (suspended) Mayor Shimon Gapso, who says Upper Nazareth is a Jewish city so no Arab school will be established."
  16. ^ Hawari, Yara (2019). "Erasing memories of Palestine in settler-colonial urban space: the case of Haifa". In H. Yacobi and M. Nasasra (ed.). Routledge Handbook on Middle East Cities. Taylor & Francis. p. 117. ISBN 978-1-317-23118-9. 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.
  17. ^ Diab, Shdema & Schnell 2021, p. 6: "Most Arabs live in marginalised ethnic enclaves"
  18. ^ Tzfadia 2011, p. 160b: "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."
  19. ^ Yacobi 2009, p. 1: "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."
  20. ^ Cohen, Roger (1 August 2021). "Riots Shatter Veneer of Coexistence in Israel's Mixed Towns". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 July 2022. A journey across several mixed Israeli towns and cities revealed the extent of this mutual incomprehension. Seventy-three years after Israel's birth in the 1948 Independence War, in which hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled or were driven out at gunpoint, Jews and Arabs in Israel live side by side but largely blind to each others' lives. Towns portrayed as models of peaceful coexistence fester with resentments born of double standards.
  21. ^ Eichner, Itamar; Golditch, Haim (25 October 2021). "Israel approves NIS 30 billion for development of Arab sector". ynetnews. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  22. ^ "Relations in mixed cities one year after May 2021 disturbances – comment". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 24 May 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  23. ^ Monterescu & Rabinowitz 2016, p. 7: Figure 1.1 Demographic ratio (Arabs:Jews) in selected Mixed Towns in Palestine/Israel, 1800–2003
  24. ^ 2020 data from the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, except for Jaffa (included within Tel Aviv-Yafo in the CBS statistics) from Haaretz: Lior, Ilan (28 February 2011). "Tel Aviv to build affordable housing for Jaffa's Arab residents". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  25. ^ Assaf-Shapira, Yair (20 December 2019). "Segregation and Dissimilarity". Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  26. ^ Scholch, Alexander. "The Demographic Development of Palestine, 1850–1882." International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 17, no. 4, 1985, pp. 485–505. JSTOR, JSTOR 163415. Accessed 4 Jun. 2022.
  27. ^ 1922 census of Palestine, page 9: Jerusalem 34460 Jews and others, 28118 Arabs, 62578 total; Jaffa 20160 Jews and others, 27549 Arabs, 47709 total; Acre 180 Jews and others, 6240 Arabs, 6420 total; Nof HaGalil (uninhabited); Lod 11 Jews and others, 8092 Arabs, 8103 total; Ramla 35 Jews and others, 7277 Arabs, 7312 total; Ma'alot-Tarshiha 1880 Arabs only; Haifa 6382 Jews and others, 18252 Arabs, 24634 total; Safed 2986 Jews and others, 5775 Arabs, 8761 total; Tiberias 4431 Jews and others, 2519 Arabs, 6950 total
  28. ^ a b c Falah 1996, p. 830.
  29. ^ Commons:Category:Village Statistics, 1945
  30. ^ Kamen, Charles S. (1987). "After the Catastrophe I: The Arabs in Israel, 1948–51". Middle Eastern Studies. 23 (4). Taylor & Francis, Ltd.: 453–495. doi:10.1080/00263208708700721. ISSN 0026-3206. JSTOR 4283205. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  31. ^ Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, "Settlements".