Abstract

Abstract: This presentation will critically explore Israel’s past involvement (1956-1973) in Africa, with a special focus on the involvement of three architects in planning and design of public buildings, housing projects as well as master-plans in Africa. Through this discussion, the contradiction in the Israeli imagination of Africa will be exposed; unlike former colonial powers, Israel sees itself both aligned with Africa on ideological terms (i.e. a young de-colonised and developing nation), but at the same time in full contrast to Africa (i.e. Israel as a modern, Western society).

Biography: Dr. Haim, Yacobi is a senior lecturer at the Department of Politics and Government at Ben Gurion University and a Marie-Curie Fellow at Cambridge University. As an architect and planner who specialized in geography, his academic work focuses on the urban as a political, social and cultural entity. The main issues that stand in the centre of his research interests in relation to the urban space are social justice, the politics of identity, migration, globalisation and planning. His book, The Jewish-Arab City: Spatio-Politics in a Mixed Community was published recently (Routledge, London). In 1999 he formulated the idea of establishing “Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights” (NGO) and was its co-founder.