Seizing Jerusalem: Archaeology, landscape preservation and the ‘Wall’

Summary

The battle for land(scape) and territorial control is a key element in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the 'struggle for Jerusalem'. This paper focuses on the impact of the ‘Wall’ on the archaeologically rich and environmentally sensitive Refaim Valley—'the bread basket of Jerusalem'. Here environmental and heritage discourses are being used to legitimize the transformation of the valley from a Palestinian agricultural resource to an Israeli ‘Biblical landscape’ conservation area. This extended Israeli National Park in the valley will be linked into a 1,500 hectare ‘Jerusalem Ring’ Metropolitan park. The planned route of the ‘Wall’ not only cuts off Palestinian farmers from large swathes of their land, it also severs nine Palestinian communities (c. 22,000 inhabitants) from services and employment in the city. The paper further examines the Palestinian cooption of the ‘preservationist’ discourse, through UNESCO Palestine’s Battir Cultural Landscape Project, as a strategy of resistance.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Late Empires: the archaeology of recent colonialism and imperialism - 1860s to the present   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 717