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White City, Black City

Architecture and War in Tel Aviv and Jaffa

Sharon Rotbard

$36.95

Paperback

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English
Pluto Press
20 April 2025
'An exemplary architectural study' - Owen Hatherley, Guardian

Tel Aviv, the Zionist project's 'White City', is said to have risen from the sands of the desert. Acclaimed worldwide for its architectural heritage and gleaming Bauhaus-inspired Modernism, it is ostensibly designed to be a safe home for the Jewish people.

However, the reality of the city's establishment was very different. Hidden below its foundations are the remains of Jaffa - the 'Black City', a Palestinian city that was obliterated to make way for European-style architecture at the heart of a newly-formed Israel.

Both a gripping narrative and a unique architectural record, White City, Black City shows that cities are made not only of stones and concrete but also of stories and histories - victors and losers, predator and prey.

This new edition contains a postscript reflecting on the recent destruction of the Gaza Strip.
By:  
Imprint:   Pluto Press
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Edition:   Second Edition
Dimensions:   Height: 215mm,  Width: 135mm, 
ISBN:   9780745350936
ISBN 10:   0745350933
Pages:   272
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Part I: White City Book of Paper, Book of Stone Writers and Builders The White City Exhibition The Invention of Normality Conservation Whitened City White Lies Round Corners Good Old Eretz Israel Whiter than White City Built on Dunes Part II: Black City The Black Patch War Fleeing Jaffa Bypassing Manshieh Spatial Contradiction ‘Those Polish of the Orient’ Separation British 1930s Urbicide Cleansing Jaffa – Tel Aviv An Occupied City Hebraized City The Big Zone Antique Jaffa Green Dunes Raping the Bride of the Sea The Orange Route The Children of Jaffa The Menorah Part III: White City, Black City and a Rainbow Uncritical Modernists Blue and White Multicultural City Afterword Postscript to the New Edition Acknowledgements Notes Bibliography Index

Sharon Rotbard is an Israeli architect, publisher and author. He co-founded the independent press Babel Publishers and serves as Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. He lives with his wife in Tel Aviv.

Reviews for White City, Black City: Architecture and War in Tel Aviv and Jaffa

'A superbly researched and exemplary architectural study ... If you want an explanation of the roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict - and of just how deep they go, right into the very foundations of the buildings - this book gives one of the most unusual and convincing accounts' -- Owen Hatherley, <i>Guardian</i> 'An important and fascinating exposé through architecture, geography and history. A sad but revealing history of how myths are forged and histories corrupted' -- Raja Shehadeh, author of <i>Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape</i> and winner of the Orwell Prize for Literature 'This tale of Tel Aviv's growth from a Jaffa suburb to a metropolis is gripping' -- <i>The Economist</i> 'Fascinating' -- Edwin Heathcote, <i>Financial Times</i> 'A path-breaking and brilliant analysis that combines architecture, urban design, military strategy and general culture into an exhilarating war of streets and homes' -- Eyal Weizman, founding director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London 'A detailed and useful corrective to the mainstream Zionist narrative about the founding of Tel Aviv' -- <i>Times Literary Supplement</i> 'White City, Black City is not a book about architecture. It is a political text written in a beautiful clear language' -- <i>Time Out</i> 'A challenging book that deserves to be read and argued over. Rotbard here slaughters an especially sacred cow: Tel Avivness' -- Tom Segev, <i>Haaretz</i> 'A fundamental, fascinating and clever book on architecture in the service of politics' -- Adam Baruch, <i>Maariv</i>


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