Jaffa Shared and Shattered: Contrived Coexistence in Israel/Palestine
Binational cities play a pivotal role in situations of long-term conflict, and few places have been more marked by the tension between intimate proximity and visceral hostility than Jaffa, one of the "mixed towns" of Israel/Palestine. In this nuanced ethnographic and historical study, Daniel Monterescu argues that such places challenge our assumptions about cities and nationalism, calling into question the Israeli state's policy of maintaining homogeneous, segregated, and ethnically stable spaces. Analyzing everyday interactions, life stories, and histories of violence, he reveals the politics of gentrification and the circumstantial coalitions that define the city. Drawing on key theorists in anthropology, sociology, urban studies, and political science, he outlines a new relational theory of sociality and spatiality. Reviews The book's analysis of the relations between the political, the cultural, and the neoliberal economy through a historical engagement with the city of Jaffa is a significant contribution to understanding the complexity of life for Jaffa's residents. ― Journal of Levantine Studies Anybody with an interest in the politics and sociology of Israeli/Palestinian relations needs to read this book. Daniel Monterescu provides a rich and theoretically sophisticated account of urban politics in Jaffa. ― Perspectives on Politics In showing how Jaffa is both shared and shattered, the book is an important and timely contribution to ongoing debates about mutual relations between Palestinians and Israelis in the context of recurring conflict, entrenched inequality and ongoing colonisation. It is essential reading for everyone interested in contemporary Palestinian–Israeli relations and should be of particular interest to political and urban anthropologists. ― Social Anthropology For anyone who would like to understand the experience of living as a member of the minority Arab population in a 'mixed' city in Israel, then Jaffa is both the place and the study to read. . . [T]his is a well-researched, very worthwhile excursus into a complicated societal problem. . . . Highly recommended. ― Choice Jaffa Shared and Shattered is a rich and provocative addition to the scholarly literature on Palestine/ Israel and urban studies. ― American Ethnologist Based on intimate knowledge of Jaffa and its Jewish and Arab communities, and armed with both rich theoretical knowledge and human empathy, Daniel Monterescu goes back to the town of his childhood to tell us on Jews and Arabs who share this mixed town. He touches brilliantly the spaces in which the political and the personal melt into one and moments where the borders between members of national communities mist. This is not another book about "the Other" but rather a book on "Us"―members of two national communities who, during a conflict, willingly or against their will, share one space and create, tell, recreate and retell their own story and their own lives. ― Hillel Cohen