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 Jerusalem and its hinterlandSince 2002, the construction of the Wall has had pervasive impacts on Jerusalem itself, but also on its periphery. The economic, social and political dynamics of the West Bank have dramatically changed because of the new urban fabric created by the Barrier. While Jerusalem used to be the center of life in Palestine where activities were always expected to happen, the construction of the Wall shifted the locus of life to Ramallah and has left Jerusalem in a fading position. As a result, IPCC developed a project meant to study these changes and how they affected the economic and social life of Jerusalem's hinterland as well as its geography. The project will begin by a survey focused on four main areas: North point of Jerusalem municipal borders Historical road between Jerusalem and Jericho Historical Road between Jerusalem and Ramallah Historical road between Beit Hanina and Shu'fatThrough this survey, it will be possible to examine how economic activities shifted to a locus in the West Bank at the expense of Jerusalem. Due to the difficulty of accessing Jerusalem, people have decided to commute to the periphery of the city to meet their basic needs as well as to look for employment. Due to the economic shift of location, city planning has changed and density is growing in certain areas of the West Bank. The study of old city plans and their comparison to new ones will help show the contrast between the economic, social and cultural life before and after the construction of the Wall in Jerusalem and its hinterland. This study will then try to bring to light the changes in standards of living as well as in building structure in Jerusalem's suburbs. It will map out the movements of Jerusalemites as well as West Bankers and assess the difficulty of these movements. At the end of the day, this study will try to show how Jerusalemites are being more and more isolated from economic, political and cultural activities compared to the rest of the West Bank, most especially Ramallah. Communication between Jerusalem and the West Bank is being broken as a result of the Wall's construction and is fragmenting the Palestinian society further. |
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