Kudüs Kent Mekânında İmparatorluk Normları: Çoğulculuktan Kutuplaşmaya (1871-1948)
Imperial Norms in the Urban Space of Jerusalem: From Pluralism to Polarization (1871-1948)

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the spatial transformation of Jerusalem between 1871 and 1948 in the context of Ottoman and British urban policies and questions the effects of the imperial policies on the historical fabric and social structure of the city. In the current literature, the origins of the spatial and social segregation of the city have been traced back to the Ottoman period. The starting point for this approach is the vision constructed in the urban plans drawn up by European cartographers in the 19th century. These maps depict Jerusalem as a city sharply divided between religious communities. This study challenges that common view through an examination of the urban policies of the late Ottoman and British periods. The 19th-century urban plans of Jerusalem do not reveal the heterogeneity of the city and how the coexistence of different social groups shaped the space. The Ottoman census records and other types of archival documents provide data that contradict this segregationist view. They show that different religious communities intermingled within the walled city and that the claimed segregation did not actually exist. Yet, when Jerusalem came under British control in 1917, the image of a 'segregated' Jerusalem depicted in the drawings of European cartographers come to become a reality. The spatial fabric of Jerusalem was deeply affected by this process, which was dominated by British colonialism and urban planning practices that served colonialism. This suggestion is particularly evident in the four different urbanisation projects developed by William McLean (1918), Patrik Geddes (1919), Charles Robert Ashbee (1922) and Henry Kendal (1944). The urbanisation practices of the British administration created two separate urban settlements; in particular, the "green belt" turned the walled area into an "open-air museum" under the pretext of preserving the religious and historical heritage, while the settlement area outside the walls was reorganised according to the principles of modern European urbanism. As a result, the collective living spaces of Ottoman Jerusalem lost their function, and the social and spatial segregation became clearly visible.

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