Jerusalem Unplugged

McLean, Ashbee and Geddes may not be household names for many in Jerusalem and those who are in various way interested in, or attached to the city. Yet, these British urban planners had a major influence in the development of Jerusalem and its design since the British conquered the city in December 1917. Dr. Noah Hysler Rubin, an urban planner and geographer at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, tells about the role these individuals played in re-imagining and planning the city once the British took over. Their legacy is particularly visible in the city outside the walls where they had been able to accommodate various ideas, their own, the desire of the British administrators and finally of the Zionists - local Arabs were essentially excluded from the process. With Dr Rubin, we then discussed the question of the Jerusalem Municipal Archives, a rather neglected, underfunded and hard to access institution that could provide invaluable material in order to write a more comprehensive history of modern Jerusalem. In the end Dr Rubin hopes that her work will help many to understand the various layers of Jerusalem and began to be more inclusive and remember those who have been excluded in the past.

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Matthew Teller, writer, documentary maker and BBC Radio contributor, tells us about his personal journey and experience in Jerusalem and of Jerusalem. Matthew has recently finished a new book on the city and he talks about it with us: Nine Quarters or Jerusalem. 'Jerusalem is under intense pressure. Stories from its Indian and West African communities, its Dom Gypsies, its Islamic Sufi mystics, its Syriac and Armenian churches – all these and others are being overlooked. The women who shaped Jerusalem’s architectural legacy. The artists at work today. Tailors. Coffee-roasters. Social activists. Sellers of silk, books or onions. Jerusalem is not my city, but it’s a privilege for me to be able to amplify Jerusalemite voices, help them to be heard above the clamour.'

Matthew is writing a book of stories to help illuminate a walk – on foot, or in the mind – through the Old City of Jerusalem. The Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City, it uses individual voices from the communities who live – and have lived – inside Jerusalem’s walls to explore the city’s sense of itself, challenge prevailing narratives and paint a new, intimately personal picture of social and cultural diversity.

https://www.matthewteller.com/work/nine-quarters-of-jerusalem-a-new-biography-of-the-old-city/

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Nadi Abusaada, architect, urbanist and historian, discussed the role of British urban planning for Jerusalem in the early 1920s, particularly the work of Charles Ashbee. Architecture and urban planning are more than just an exercise in beautification or urbanization of space in Jerusalem, it is a question of ethno-politics. We then discussed the Arab Fair that took place in Jerusalem in the early 1930s. This work by Nadi has been published by the Jerusalem Quarterly and it is a fascinating research into an event that has received very little attention. We moved to discuss a recent article published in the Architectural Review looking at the battle that is taking place underground as Israeli archaeologists are trying to use historical claims in order to make territorial gains in East Jerusalem. https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/under-jerusalem-israels-subterranean-expansion

Lastly, we talked about the agency of architects and their role in the future of the city.

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We open season 5 without any celebration. The current war on Gaza, the brutal killings of civilians perpetrated by Hamas and the equally brutal response by the State of Israel carpet-bombing Gaza indiscriminately and essentially pushing Palestinians towards a second Nakba could not be a good time to celebrate 100 episodes of Jerusalem Unplugged.

In this new release I talked to Noa Shaindlinger, author of an amazing book about post-Nakba Jaffa. She explores the ways in which Palestinians negotiate physical and symbolic erasures by producing their own archives and historical narratives. With a focus on the city of Jaffa and its displaced Palestinian population, Noa argues that the Israeli state ‘buried’ histories of mass expulsions and spatial appropriations. Based on a wide-variety of sources, this book brings together archival, literary, ethnographic and oral research to engage with ideas of settler colonialism and the production of history, violence and memory, refugee-hood and diaspora.

Before all of this we exchanged view about current events, a possibility for Jerusalem Unplugged to clarify its position.

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The Nabi Musa festival dates back centuries, an Islamic celebration of the Prophet Moses that started at the end of the Crusader period. While the festival was abolished by the British during the Mandate it had been revived later under the Jordanians and more recently under the umbrella of the Palestinian Authority. The festival is deeply connected with Nabi Musa, the alleged tomb of Moses and developed through the centuries as a display of local Islamic and then civic identity of Palestine. In this episode Awad Alaby tells us everything about Nabi Musa and the festival, its origin, development and sadly its end. With Awad, we also discussed his family history and how important will be in the future to develop a strong family history of Palestine, a way of preserving Palestinian heritage and celebrate life. In the end we also discussed the question of the podcast as a public history tool, one that can discuss the complex history of Jerusalem and its people without making it simplistic.

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