Political conflict, town planning and housing supply in Jerusalem: the implications for the built environment in the Old City

In this detailed demographic analysis of the current ethnic composition of Jerusalem, Samer Bagaeen looks at the highly problematic role of urban planning in ethnically polarized cities. He argues that “city planning [in Jerusalem] has been turned into a tool of the [Israeli] government to be used to help prevent the expansion of the city's non?Jewish population”. Palestinians have, as a result of national and municipal housing policies, been forced to live in cramped conditions, and according to the author's own surveys, overcrowding is now having a deteriorating effect on the physical fabric in the Palestinian quarters of the Old City. Jerusalem has been of ongoing concern for City and this paper is in some respects a continuation of Michael Safier's article on Jerusalem and cosmopolitan co?existence in Vol. 5, No. 2, 2001.Baga