Uncovering the urban dimension in nationalist conflict: Jerusalem and Belfast compared

Abstract

How does an urban setting of a nationalist conflict exert effects on the coherency of political opposition and the level of ethnic tension? Urban policies can transform broader conflict by affecting the material grounds for political grievance and the dynamics of an ethnically‐based urban opposition. This article probes the effects of partisan Israeli policies on Jerusalem Palestinians since 1967 and the effects of ethnically‐neutral British policies on Belfast Catholics since 1972. Findings indicate that the urban region, heretofore neglected in conflict studies, is a complex platform for the interplay of community‐based opposition and nationalist ethnic conflict. In Jerusalem, Palestinian grievances over Israeli partisan urban strategy are strong, but Israeli co‐optation of the Arab community and Palestinian government's lack of enthusiasm concerning grassroots advocacy and human rights work dampen Palestinian oppositional mobilization. In Belfast, Catholic grievances over material conditions are partially addressed by nonpartisan urban policies, yet organizational attributes of the republican Catholic opposition have been resistant to governing regime efforts to dampen them. While a city amidst nationalist conflict constitutes a lever that a urban governing regime can use in efforts to exploit cleavages within the political opposition, it also comprises an emotive symbol that can consolidate political opposition.