Jérusalem en 2020 sous l’œil des urbanistes

Résumé 0

Jerusalem in 2020: A Planner’s View. – In September 2004, the municipal government of Jerusalem developed a new master plan for the city. This is of great significance since the last plan was approved back in 1959.Every planning document aims to both satisfy the residents current needs and to project those needs into the needs of the future, hoping to contribute to an improvement in living conditions. The task, always a delicate one, is essentially to define the common good, both for today and tomographe (see illustration, p. 212).Foreign and domestic political considerations always influence the decision-making process. In this case, the new master plan appears not to have restricted itself to meeting existing needs since it is also concerned with meeting a certain goal, one outlined in the government’s recommendations. That goal is the “consolidation of Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem.” Planners were advised to strive for maintaining in the city the ethnic distribution that has existed since 1967: 70% Jewish inhabitants and 30% Arab.Surprisingly, the planners contested this, the plan projecting that, by 2020, the city would be 60% Jewish and 40% Arab, given natural growth. This figure would appear to be more fair than that of the government’s recommendation, but even it is not based on natural growth projections alone. For it requires that there be significant rise in Jewish immigration to the city and no Arab immigration, whereas at present there are number of Jews is declining.This call for strong Jewish immigration has had a great influence on the urban vision contained in the master plan. As regards housing, Jewish neighbourhoods are to be extended while the growth of Arab neighbourhoods is to be restricted, both vertically and horizontally. Some new neighbourhoods are also projected and they all appear to be intended for Jewish residents alone (to the West, Har Harett, Rekhes Lavan, and Mitzpe Neftoah; to the East, Har Homa D).Even if the discriminatory inequities contained in the plan have been, and continue to be, a matter of intense discussion by Israelis and Palestinians, it must be said that the new master plan contains a number of decisions that are not at all connected to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Rather, they seem to be inspired by classical Western approaches to planning. These include the Central Business District (CBD) renewal, with its new towers and tram network, the protection of open spaces or green belts, and the conservation of a number of historic buildings.Western influenced Jerusalem planning is nothing new; indeed, it can be said to have originated with the British Mandate. Current legislation is thus but a part of the British heritage. Moreover, a good number of Israeli planners were educated abroad, particularly in North America and Europe. Finally, Israeli society in general is highly western and hence tends to favour western-urban development.