The discourses of Ba’al Shem Tov (Besht) Street in Jaffa: From displacement to placement

Abstract

In Israel, as in most countries, most urban renewal involves gentrification and displacement of residents Ba’al Shem Tov (Besht) Jaffa, is an outlier in this landscape. There, 180 families inhabit ten tenements—one-third renting and nearly all the others owning their dwellings. Half of the residents are Jewish and the rest Arab, and most are lower-middle class. Those dwelling in this hardscrabble neighborhood live with a sense of displaceability reflected in neglect and continual tension amid initial urban-renewal processes that will force them to decide whether and how to remain in the neighborhood and, if they choose to leave, to weigh their alternatives. What might have ended with displacement ended with placeability. In this article, we ask: What happened here? Why was it exceptional? What can it teach us about urban renewal and displaceability? The answers center on the involvement of a law clinic that undertook to steward the project and a “random coalition” that applied collective governance. The outcomes, placeability and regulation of urban renewal instead of displaceability and displacement, are studied in view of the overlapping and clashing interests of the developer, the clinic, and the residents, as well as their relations.