A Nation from the Sands

Abstract

Since its birth ninety years ago Tel Aviv has been a leading symbol ofthe Zionist, and subsequently, Israeli claim to be a modem, progressive, and essentially ‘Western’ nation. The power of this image has obscured both the intimate connection between the modern(ist) architectural and town-planning discourses upon which its identity has been constructed and the exclusivism of Zionism as a nationalist movement, and the fact that the neighboring town ofJaffa, long considered Tel Aviv’s ancient and backward alter ego, was in fact developing along similar lines as the Jewish city until its conquest in 1948.