War and Postwar Transformation of Urban Areas: The 1948 War and the Incorporation of Jaffa into Tel Aviv

Abstract

War is a distinctive form of human-made catastrophe whose impact in many cases reaches far beyond the actual places of its occurrence. While regarded a catastrophe in areas exposed to acts of belligerency, in the rear war might generate a process of major development, resulting in a conclusive spatial transformation process. In both front and rear areas, the outcomes of wartime drastic processes are mostly short lived, gradually eradicated through the dynamics of postwar restoration and development. Drastic wartime events may turn cities into areas of devastation, depopulation, and misery but may also generate rapid development and change. In war-stricken areas of the stormy twentieth century, such as Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East, the formation of urban spaces and the shaping of urban landscapes were consequent to interplay between drastic and dynamic processes. Wartime emergencies frequently resulted in a rapid and wide-ranging though ephemeral process of spatial change. Postwar years were times of opportunity for restoration and reshaping. The impact of drastic and dynamic wartime and postwar processes on urban areas is depicted in the case of Tel Aviv—Jaffa during and following the 1948 war.