Description

‘Gripping’ – Economist

‘A fascinating expose’ – Raja Shehadeh, author of Palestinian Walks

‘Path-breaking and brilliant’ – Eyal Weizman, director of Forensic Architecture and author of Hollow Land

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 destruction of the Gaza Strip.

Publisher Review

‘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, Guardian ‘An important and fascinating expose through architecture, geography and history. A sad but revealing history of how myths are forged and histories corrupted’ — Raja Shehadeh, author of Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape and winner of the Orwell Prize for Literature ‘This tale of Tel Aviv’s growth from a Jaffa suburb to a metropolis is gripping’ — The Economist ‘Fascinating’ — Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times ‘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’ — Times Literary Supplement ‘White City, Black City is not a book about architecture. It is a political text written in a beautiful clear language’ — Time Out ‘A challenging book that deserves to be read and argued over. Rotbard here slaughters an especially sacred cow: Tel Avivness’ — Tom Segev, Haaretz ‘A fundamental, fascinating and clever book on architecture in the service of politics’ — Adam Baruch, Maariv