Jaffa Shared and Shattered

<p>Binational cities play a pivotal role in situations of long-term conflict and few places have been more marked by the tension between intimate proximity and visceral hostility than Jaffa one of the mixed towns of Israel/Palestine. In this nuanced ethnographic and historical study Daniel Monterescu argues that such places challenge our assumptions about cities and nationalism calling into question the Israeli state's policy of maintaining homogeneous segregated and ethnically stable spaces. Analyzing everyday interactions life stories and histories of violence he reveals the politics of gentrification and the circumstantial coalitions that define the city. Drawing on key theorists in anthropology sociology urban studies and political science he outlines a new relational theory of sociality and spatiality.</p>