Shared Public Space: Cities, Infrastructure, and the Daily Practice of Equality

Streets, Services, and the Geography of Belonging

Series Preface

Understanding Jewish and Palestinian Equality in Israel examines how law, belonging, dignity, and justice shape everyday life between the river and the sea. Written from my perspective as an African-American Christian who also practices Judaism, the series seeks understanding rather than ideology—beginning with equality among Israel’s citizens (Part I), comparing civilian and military rule (Part II), examining how security structures produce unequal outcomes (Part III), exploring the psychology of bias and discrimination (Part IV), and drawing on moral traditions of justice and liberation (Part V).

Part VI showed how prolonged control without equality fuels extremism.
Part VII analyzed ideological movements that depend on despair.
Part VIII examined how identity narratives shape political belonging.
Part IX showed how fear—especially fear of Palestinian nationalism—blocks pathways to justice.
Part X highlighted emerging agents of coexistence.
Part XI explored coexistence as civic infrastructure.
Part XII examined the material foundations of equality: land, labor, and economic opportunity.
Part XIII confronted displacement, exile, and the meaning of return.
Part XIV analyzed the politics of recognition.
Part XV addressed citizenship and the architecture of belonging.
Part XVI explored the emotional meaning of security.
Part XVII examined political imagination and possibility.
Part XVIII looked at identity and national self-understanding.
Part XIX explored justice, accountability, and the ethics of repair.

Part XX turns to the built environment—the streets, sidewalks, parks, transit corridors, and public institutions where equality becomes tangible.

Key Question

How does the design and governance of public space determine whether Israelis and Palestinians encounter equality as a lived experience—or as a distant abstraction?

Abstract

Public space is the terrain where political values take material form. Sidewalks, transportation systems, parks, utilities, schools, and public buildings communicate dignity or degradation, belonging or exclusion. Between the river and the sea, unequal investment, militarized landscapes, restrictive zoning, and fragmented planning regimes shape the daily lives of Israelis and Palestinians. This essay examines how these spatial inequalities emerge, how they structure the rhythms of ordinary life, and how shared public space—if intentionally designed—can become a foundation for coexistence.

Bridge Context

Across the globe, societies that have emerged from conflict have learned that public space can either reproduce division or serve as an instrument of healing. Belfast’s “peace walls” protected communities yet entrenched segregation for generations. Johannesburg’s spatial apartheid endures long after apartheid itself ended. Sarajevo’s mixed institutions demonstrate coexistence’s fragile possibilities, while Brussels shows how multilingual governance can stabilize a shared urban identity.

In Israel and Palestine, these lessons are heightened by contested sovereignty, overlapping claims to sacred space, asymmetric power, and ongoing violence. Here, public space is not merely symbolic. It is the stage on which equality or inequality is performed every day.

Part XX — Shared Public Space: Cities, Infrastructure, and the Daily Practice of Equality

XX.1 Public Space as the Daily Classroom of Equality

At dawn in East Jerusalem’s Shuafat neighborhood, a Palestinian mother walks her child along a cracked sidewalk lined with overflowing trash bins—conditions often cited in municipal reports as emblematic of chronic underinvestment. Only a few miles away, in the Jewish neighborhood of French Hill, families pass through clean, well-lit streets maintained on a regular municipal schedule. Both areas sit within the same municipal boundaries, yet they offer radically different civic lessons. A neglected sidewalk teaches exclusion; a welcoming street communicates dignity.

Public space has always shaped the moral imagination. It signals who belongs, who matters, and who is expected to flourish. It can normalize segregation through physical barriers or cultivate coexistence through shared amenities, integrated transit lines, accessible parks, and well-maintained sidewalks. Long before political leaders speak, the built environment teaches residents what equality means.

XX.2 Unequal Infrastructure as a Structure of Dispossession

Inequality in public infrastructure across Israel and the occupied territories is empirically documented rather than merely perceived. Inside Israel, Palestinian municipalities routinely receive lower per-capita funding for local services, a discrepancy measured at roughly 20–40 percent by the Sikkuy–Aufoq Equality Index. The consequences are visible: fewer paved sidewalks, fewer public parks, fewer cultural and health facilities, and older or inadequate drainage systems.

East Jerusalem illustrates a more extreme version of this pattern. Roughly one-third of Palestinian households are not connected to the formal sewage grid, and only a small portion of Palestinian land is zoned for residential construction—conditions that have been recorded consistently by Ir Amim and municipal planning reports. Municipal waste collection, road maintenance, and street lighting lag significantly behind levels in West Jerusalem.

In the West Bank, the contrast between Israeli settlements and neighboring Palestinian villages is stark. Settlements benefit from well-maintained roads, reliable electricity, and uninterrupted access to water, while many Palestinian communities experience water supply only a few days each week and face roadblocks that fragment even short local journeys. Gaza’s infrastructure, devastated by repeated conflict and years of blockade, suffers from severe electrical instability and widespread lack of potable water, leaving residents dependent on private generators and desalination units.

Space becomes the medium through which inequality is administered. It is not only political—it is geographical.

XX.3 Mobility, Borders, and the Ethics of Movement

Few aspects of daily life illustrate inequality more clearly than movement. A Jewish Israeli traveling from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv can typically complete the journey in under an hour. A Palestinian from Bethlehem attempting to enter Jerusalem may wait that long simply to pass through Checkpoint 300—if allowed at all.

This disparity is not incidental. Dozens of permanent checkpoints, hundreds of ad-hoc “flying checkpoints,” road closures, and a complex permit regime shape virtually every Palestinian movement between home, work, school, and medical care. Certain roads are effectively segregated by access restrictions, linking settlements directly to Israel while bypassing Palestinian towns.

Movement determines access to economic opportunity, healthcare, education, religious life, and family networks. A society cannot achieve shared flourishing when mobility is predictably free for one population and unpredictably constrained for another. The ethical question is not only about freedom of travel but about the right to a life that is not shaped by perpetual uncertainty.

XX.4 Housing, Planning, and the Meaning of Home

A home is more than a physical structure; it embodies belonging and the promise of continuity. Yet housing and planning policies across the region create deeply unequal experiences of home.

Inside Israel, Palestinian communities often face restrictive zoning and small municipal boundaries, producing overcrowding and limiting opportunities for new housing. Building permits are exceedingly difficult to obtain, which compels families to build without authorization and leaves them vulnerable to demolition.

In East Jerusalem, the challenge is even more severe. A substantial percentage of Palestinian homes lack building permits because the permitting system rarely approves applications from Palestinian residents. Demolition orders follow accordingly, leaving many families in a perpetual state of insecurity.

In the West Bank, the Israeli Civil Administration rejects nearly all Palestinian applications for building in Area C, even as settlements expand across the same terrain. From 2016 to 2020, Palestinian permit applications in Area C were denied at a rate exceeding 95 percent, making lawful construction nearly impossible. Gaza faces its own housing crisis, driven by war damage, economic isolation, and a blockade that restricts the entry of construction materials.

Housing policy affects not just present shelter but the future itself, shaping whether home feels like a right or a provisional arrangement.

XX.5 Shared Cities: Jerusalem, Haifa, Jaffa, Hebron

Several cities across the region offer living examples of both the possibilities and limits of shared space. Jerusalem, for instance, contains sites where Palestinians and Israelis do interact—such as the Light Rail system that carries both communities through mixed areas—yet the neighborhoods it passes through remain marked by unequal municipal investment and parallel systems of governance.

Haifa presents a more hopeful landscape, with integrated workplaces, mixed neighborhoods, and shared recreational spaces. Hospitals like Rambam treat Jewish and Arab patients side by side, with teams of doctors and nurses drawn from both communities. Yet Haifa too faces pressures of gentrification that displace long-standing Palestinian neighborhoods.

Jaffa, a historic Arab city now incorporated into Tel Aviv, embodies the contradictions of coexistence. Cultural and culinary life flourish in shared spaces, yet Palestinian residents increasingly face rising housing costs and zoning pressures that erode the community’s continuity.

Hebron offers the most extreme case of spatial division. In its H2 sector, Palestinians live under stringent movement restrictions and heavy military presence. Shuhada Street, once a commercial artery, is closed to Palestinian pedestrians while open to settlers, creating a landscape in which daily life is defined by asymmetry.

These cities demonstrate that coexistence must be supported by structural equality rather than symbolic gestures.

XX.6 Shared Public Institutions as Engines of Equality

Public institutions provide some of the most durable foundations for shared society. In hospitals across Israel—Hadassah, Rambam, Soroka—Jewish and Arab medical professionals work in teams, performing surgeries together and treating patients from all communities, including Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza during periods when access is possible. These institutions model coexistence as a professional ethic rather than a political slogan.

Universities likewise serve as engines of integration. The percentage of Arab students in Israeli higher education has grown significantly in recent years, and campuses such as Haifa University and the Hebrew University are among the most diverse spaces in the country. Bilingual schools, like those in the Hand-in-Hand network, cultivate a generation of children for whom equality is a daily classroom experience.

These institutions demonstrate that shared civic life is possible not only in theory but through intentional design.

XX.7 The Role of Policing and Surveillance in Public Space

Policing profoundly shapes how communities experience public space. In the West Bank, military and border police operate checkpoints, enforce closures, and regulate movement, leaving many Palestinians to experience security forces as agents of control rather than protection. In East Jerusalem, neighborhoods such as Issawiya or Silwan encounter frequent police operations that shape the emotional climate of daily life.

For public space to support equality, security must be civilian in character, proportionate in practice, and representative of the communities it serves. Surveillance technologies—whether facial-recognition systems or aerial monitoring—must be governed by clear oversight, lest public space become a site of intimidation rather than safety. Coexistence requires not only shared streets but trust that those streets are safeguarded by institutions committed to protecting all who walk them.

XX.8 Lessons from Other Divided Societies

Comparative experience suggests that spatial design can either perpetuate conflict or open pathways toward reconciliation. Belfast teaches that physical barriers, even when constructed for safety, can entrench division for decades. Johannesburg illustrates how spatial inequality can outlast the political systems that created it. Sarajevo and Mostar reveal both the fragility and promise of shared institutions in the aftermath of violence. Singapore demonstrates how integrated public housing and intentional ethnic mixing in neighborhoods can build multiethnic stability. Barcelona shows how investments in transit, public squares, and cultural districts can cultivate inclusive civic identity.

These examples underscore that reconciliation is not solely emotional or political—it is infrastructural. The design of public space shapes the daily rehearsal of shared life.

XX.9 Principles for Designing Shared Public Space

A project of shared public space must begin with equity—ensuring that both Palestinian and Jewish communities receive comparable investments in municipal services, utilities, transit, and public amenities. It must also ensure safety that is protective rather than coercive, cultivating policing that is civilian, accountable, and proportionate. Accessibility is essential: transit systems should connect, rather than isolate, communities across the region.

Spatial representation matters as well. Signage, language, public art, and cultural markers should affirm both Hebrew and Arabic identities. Openness and inclusion must define parks, libraries, community centers, and recreational facilities. Planning processes should include meaningful participation from both peoples, acknowledging diverse needs and shared goals. Environmental sustainability must guide investments in green space, water systems, and infrastructure. Memory should be integrated into public landscapes in ways that honor both histories without weaponizing either. Above all, public space must reflect human dignity, ensuring that no community lives in degraded or overcrowded environments.

Public space is the architecture through which dignity is made visible.

A Vision of Shared Public Space

A future grounded in equality could take many shapes. Integrated transit lines might link Jewish towns, Palestinian towns, and mixed cities, allowing residents to move with predictability and dignity. Joint industrial zones could offer shared economic opportunity under equal labor standards. Bilingual public libraries and community centers could provide spaces for cultural exchange. Shared parks and waterfronts could become areas where families of both communities gather without fear. Housing policies might shift from restrictive zoning to inclusive development. In Jerusalem, a binational planning council could create a city that acknowledges its dual character rather than denying it.

None of these proposals are speculative; each has precedent in global cities that have navigated deep division. More importantly, elements of this future already exist in places like Haifa’s hospitals, Israel’s bilingual schools, and the Jerusalem Light Rail, where daily interactions quietly model the coexistence that political negotiations have not yet achieved.

Conclusion: Infrastructure as the Pathway to Equality

Public space is the domain where the future is rehearsed. Streets, sidewalks, schools, hospitals, and parks teach residents whether equality is genuine or merely aspirational. They shape children’s understanding of belonging, adults’ sense of dignity, and communities’ ability to imagine shared life.

Part XX argues that equitable infrastructure is not secondary to peace. It is foundational. A future in which Israelis and Palestinians flourish side by side requires intentional design, equitable investment, fair planning processes, and institutions committed to serving both peoples. Public space must become a terrain of dignity rather than division. Only then can coexistence move from possibility to practice.

Part XXI will explore the spiritual and ritual dimensions that sustain shared civic identity, completing the arc that links land, belonging, justice, and the promise of a shared political future.

ENDNOTES

Sikkuy–Aufoq, Equality Index of Arab Society in Israel 2022 (Haifa/Jerusalem, 2022).
Ir Amim, East Jerusalem: Spatial Inequality Report 2023 (Jerusalem, 2023).
UN Habitat, The Spatial Dimensions of Peacebuilding (Nairobi, 2019).
Human Rights Watch, A Threshold Crossed (New York, 2021), infrastructure chapters.
B’Tselem, Access Denied: Movement and Rights in the West Bank (Jerusalem, 2020).
Erakat, Noura. Justice for Some (Stanford University Press, 2019).
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Gaza Infrastructure Assessment (Amman, 2022).
International Crisis Group, Reimagining Jerusalem (Brussels, 2018).
World Bank, West Bank and Gaza Mobility Restrictions and Economic Fragmentation (Washington, DC, 2022).

Bibliography

B’Tselem. Access Denied: Movement and Rights in the West Bank. Jerusalem, 2020.
Erakat, Noura. Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2019.
Human Rights Watch. A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution. New York, 2021.
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UN Habitat. The Spatial Dimensions of Peacebuilding. Nairobi, 2019.
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