The Struggle for Jerusalem's Holy Places

The Struggle for Jerusalem’s Holy Places investigates the role of architecture and urban identity in relation to the political economy of the city and its wider state context seen through the lens of the holy places.

Reflecting the broad disciplinary backgrounds of the authors, this book provides perspectives from architecture, urbanism, and politics, and provides in-depth investigations of historical, ethnographic and policy-related case studies. The research is substantiated by fieldwork carried out in Jerusalem over the past ten years as part of the ESRC Large Grants project ‘Conflict in Cities’. By analysing new dynamics of radicalisation through land seizure, the politicisation of parklands and tourism, the strategic manipulation of archaeological and historical narratives and material culture, and through examination of general appropriation of Jerusalem’s varied rituals, memories and symbolism for factional uses, the book reveals how possibilities of co- existence are seriously threatened in Jerusalem.

Shedding new light on the key role played by everyday urban life and its spatial settings for any future political agreements about the city and its religious sites, this book is a useful reference work for students and scholars of Middle East Studies, Architecture, Religion and Urban Studies.

Wendy Pullan is Director of the Martin Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies and Senior Lecturer in Architecture, University of Cambridge. She is Principal Investigator for ‘Conflict in Cities’. Her recent publications include co-editing Locating Urban Conflicts (2013) and Architecture and Pilgrimage (2013). She is a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.

Maximilian Sternberg is University Lecturer in the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge. He is author of Cistercian Architecture and Medieval Society (2013). He is a member of Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Michael Dumper is Professor in Middle East Politics, University of Exeter, and co-investigator on ‘Conflict in Cities’. His books include The Future of the Palestinian Refugees (2007), International Law and the Israel-Palestinian Conflict (2010) and The Politics of Jerusalem since 1967 (1997).

Craig Larkin is Lecturer in Comparative Politics of the Middle East at King’s College London. He previously worked as a research associate on ‘Conflict in Cities’ at the Department of Politics, University of Exeter. His is author of Memory and Conflict in Lebanon (2012).

Lefkos Kyriacou is an architect and research associate of ‘Conflict in Cities’ at the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge. After working at ‘Cottrell and Vermeulen Architecture’ he established his own practice in London. He is a member of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.