“You cannot really live (or die) here” – Ongoing struggles over Muslim cemeteries in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, 1957–2020

Huss, Michal; Margalit, Talia

Abstract

The article examines the Muslim community’s struggle to maintain their cemeteries in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and highlights a broader geo-temporal interpretation of the indigenous right-to-the-city. We analyse a succession of mobilizations against sales and demolitions of Muslim cemeteries across the city since the 1950s and investigate how activists recently gained tangible achievements by framing their protest as an urban citizenship mobilization. We show that by utilizing creative spatial performances, applying to municipal governance and stressing their right to use and produce urban space, to participate, and to have their local heritage acknowledged and commemorated, they invoked and reinterpreted right-to-the-city ideas. Their struggle also expanded this agenda, as they did not focus on their living area, but rather advanced claims related to the full city space and its history, and to the customary view of their spaces as 'terra nullius'. In analysing their struggle, we thus contribute to the right-to-the-city literature and agenda, highlight the right for commemoration as part of right to live in the city as equal citizens, and address the promise this case presents for minority ethnic politics.

Citation

Huss, M., & Margalit, T. (2024). “You cannot really live (or die) here” – Ongoing struggles over Muslim cemeteries in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, 1957–2020. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758241244595

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 25, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Apr 25, 2024
• Publication Date: Apr 25, 2024
• Deposit Date: May 23, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: May 23, 2024
• Journal: Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
• Print ISSN: 0263-7758
• Electronic ISSN: 1472-3433
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758241244595
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2457201