Aesthetic Dispossession in Jaffa
Two readers of Haaretz went to the Ajami neighborhood in Jaffa to see the new building of the Peres Center for Peace. Following their visit, the readers sent a letter to Haaretz explainng why criticism of the building as foreign to its surroundings is unjustified:
The article about the Peres Center for Peace and the responses to it (Haaretz, March 2009) encouraged us to visit the new building and the Ajami neighborhood in which it is located. Indeed, the building looks a bit foreign to its surroundings, as noted in two detailed responses to this article. However, this is a completely minor foreignness, as the entire area is radically changing and from a typical Arab, Mediterranean neighborhood; it is now becoming a well tended neighborhood with a western character and a well designed beach, paved walkways and new buildings that are slowly pushing out the ancient Arab ones. The new buildings even have, here and there, eastern motifs. Thus, the Peres Center for Peace is no longer “completely alienated from its surroundings and thus almost negates and ignores them,” as noted in one of the letter to the editor, and we don’t believe it would have been appropriate to build the center with “strong Islamic lines,” as noted in another letter.
However, the prominent discovery we made (and this discovery is noted briefly in the original Haaretz article) is the Peres Center for Peace direct proximity to an old Arab cemetery. The cemetery borders the area of the center and is, like the center, located on a hill that overlooks the sea. Perhaps those who created the Peres Center for Peace thus wanted to highlight the connection of the center to the Arab neighbors, or this proximity can illustrate the difficult path that is meant to lead to the desired peace, a path strewn with numerous graves.” (Haaretz weekend supplement, 20.3.2009).
The foreignness of the Peres Center for Peace building to its surroundings is “completely minor,” they write, as anyways “the entire area is radically changing.” Really, why should we cling to the past? The authors of the letter discovered that the colonial process is already at its height and there is accordingly no need to worry: the foreignness will disappear over time; the area is transforming from a “typical Arab, Mediterranean neighborhood” (not a Middle Eastern neighborhood, mind you, but Mediterranean) to a “well tended neighborhood with a western character.”
The beach is “well designed,”and the new buildings push out the “ancient Arab buildings.” This is the law of colonial progress: what already exists becomes “ancient”, the neighbors disappear, the “western” pushes out the “Arab.” This is enlightened colonialism, optimistic, the type that can allow itself to leave a little something from the past, from the people, from the indigenous people, several stylish remains for decoration: “the new buildings even have, here and there, eastern motifs.”
They further discovered another piece of the past next to the Peres Center for Peace: an old Arab cemetery. Those who wrote the letter did not hear of the protests of the activists in Jaffa, that the location of the Peres Center for Peace at the very entrance to a Muslim cemetery and next to those living people evicted from the Ajami neighborhood is a cynical act. The writers have an artistic interpretation of the intentions of the planners: “the Arabs are not really living people, with rights, people who demand their rights; they belong to the past. Therefore, perhaps the proximity to the cemetery can ‘highlight the connection of the center to the Arab neighbors.’”
However, the authors of this letter to the editor go even further and offer another, more creative interpretation of Peres Center for Peace proximity to the Muslim cemetery, particularly if we think about the vision for peace of Shimon Peres and his ilk: “perhaps the proximity can illustrate the difficult path that will lead to the desired peace, a path strewn with numerous graves.” Perhaps this is truly how Peres’ vision for a “new Middle East” will look?
This article appeared in Hebrew in the website of Tarabut, a social-political movement in Israel. Translated to English by the Alternative Information Center (AIC).
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