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CROSSING THE LINE : Nationalist Gentrification and Settler Expansion in Israel's ‘Mixed Cities’
Title / Series / Name
Publication Volume
Publication Issue
Pages
Editors
Keywords
Israel
Jewish settlements
gentrification
mixed cities
nationalism
Development
Sociology and Political Science
Urban Studies
SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
Jewish settlements
gentrification
mixed cities
nationalism
Development
Sociology and Political Science
Urban Studies
SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14018/27471
Abstract
In this article we point to the intersection between political settlement movements, religion and economic gentrification by identifying a new type of gentrifier who has settled in Israel's mixed cities: the nationalist gentrifier. Against the background of Israel's disengagement from Gaza in 2005, experienced as a deep crisis in the Zionist-religious settlement movement, new urban sites of spatial and sociopolitical action emerged. On the basis of interviews, residential participant observation and document analysis, we detail the geographical and sociological context in which nationalist gentrifiers operate in the mixed city of Jaffa and their perceptions and motivations for settlement. Drawing on recent gentrification literature, we show how these actors strategically activate the profiles of the ‘conqueror gentrifier’, the ‘colonizing gentrifier’ and the ‘competitor gentrifier’ vis-à-vis different local communities. The new nationalist gentrifiers are distinguished from both the secular liberal gentrifiers and the religious settler movement beyond the Green Line. This sociological hybrid configuration reflects processes of privatization and commodification of space as well as trends of nationalist radicalization prevalent in contemporary Jewish society in Israel. It should also prompt scholars to critically examine both the ethnonational and economic drivers of expansion projects in contested urban spaces.
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Publisher
Place of Publication
Type
Journal article
Date
2024-11
Language
ISBN
Identifiers
10.1111/1468-2427.13268