Urban iconoclasm: The case of the ‘mixed city’ of lod

This chapter analyzes the dynamics in which the contested urban landscape in the ‘mixed city’ of Lod is produced, transformed, and reproduced. It focuses on: The actual changes of the built environment and the contents and meanings embodied within the planning discourse as expressed by planners, architects and policy makers. The chapter provides a key to understanding the spatial dynamics of a city as well as its ideological agenda, which are often neglected in the literature of ethnic urban relations. It presents the historical circumstances that transformed the Palestinian city of Lydda into the Israeli ‘mixed city’ of Lod. The chapter explores the beginning of the colonization of Lydda through planning and urban design, as had appeared during the British Mandate period in Palestine. It describes the dramatic changes that had taken place post 1948, following the project of Judaization and modernization.