Media Barrios : Envisioning Jerusalem through Media Barrios and Performance Spaces

This idea is fabulous because it not only addresses the political realities of Jerusalem, but it reclaims the idea of the media as a tool for creating connections and understanding. The media is such a controversial and propagandized medium in the middle east, using it for the purposes of a peace is a very creative twist.

Several articles in the latest issue of the Jerusalem Quarterly (#39) are devoted to an examination of the nature of Jerusalem as a divided city. An article on our research on arts interventions for social identity and urban renewal in Jerusalem and Belfast is also included in this collection.

http://www.jerusalemquarterly.org

Excerpt from the editorial: "The main avenue of our enquiry is the ways in which conflict at the national level has an impact in cities and the role of cities, especially with respect to their everyday life, in perpetuating, ameliorating and even transforming these larger conflicts. Our working assumption is that conflict in cities cannot be completely eradicated. Cities are, due to the high concentration of people, through the competition over resources and over symbolic locations, inevitably going to be arenas of conflict. The aspiration for a wholly harmonious city is misplaced. The question is how conflict can be channelled into constructive forms where difference, in terms of ethnicity, religion, society or politics, becomes a positive aspect of urban life. Ultimately we are interested in understanding how a divided city can become viable for all of its inhabitants. By examining this relationship between the politics of contested states and the dynamics of urban conflict across a number of similar but also different cities we hope will produce a number of critical observations."

Case studies of urban renewal through the arts in other divided cities, such as Berlin and Belfast, we hope such Media Barrios can be developed to support positive change both in the city of Jerusalem and in the broader region through 2050.

The physical divisions and lack of mobility into the city not only affect access to education, healthcare services, and employment opportunities for the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, they also serve to cut them off from their deep social, cultural and religious ties to the city.

This idea is fabulous because it not only addresses the political realities of Jerusalem, but it reclaims the idea of the media as a tool for creating connections and understanding. The media is such a controversial and propagandized medium in the middle east, using it for the purposes of a peace is a very creative twist.