Urban planning and the everyday experience of Palestinian women in Jaffa

Hanna Hamdam Saliba

doi:10.5565/rev/dag.74

Urban planning and the everyday experience of Palestinian women in Jaffa

Authors

Hanna Hamdam Saliba Departament de Geografia Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

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Abstract

This article aims to examine how planning policies and practices affect the everyday spatial practice of Palestinian women living in Jaffa. To do this, in-depth interviews were conducted with Palestinian women living in Jaffa, and afterwards, “thematic analysis” method was used to analyze the narratives. The main finding of this study is that the ignoring, neglecting and discriminatory planning of the local and national institutions, has produced un-appropriate and un-safe spaces for Palestinian women, and which in turn lead to limits and reduce their everyday spatial practices and to exclude them to a limited social, cultural, economical and geographical spaces. At the same time, these discriminated and ignoring policies lead Palestinian women to create alternative-Palestinian space, which despite it limited and narrow, they can expand their spatial mobility, feel comfortable and re-define their identity.

Keywords

planning, power relations, Palestinian women, exclusion, alienation

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