Author: Noga Rippin
On Friday, February 9th, we visited "Al-Bayader" organzization in Nazareth as a part of ”Pipeline for Urban Professionals in Arab Society in Israel" program, organized by the Urban Clinic. Field trips are led by students and graduates of the program. The goal of these trips is to share and build knowledge within the group, and the group contributing its knowledge. The workshop and tour was led by Dr. Enaya Banna-Jeries, the urban clinic academic advisor and works with Al Bayader.
The students came from various parts of the country, most studying at the Hebrew University and some at Ben-Gurion University. The visit was joined by additional friends of the clinic and the staff.
The morning began with a look of the view from the balconies on the fourth floor in the high-tech park of Nazareth, south towards the valley. Everyone who entered the workshop room had to write on a note the name of an association from the Arab civil society. Ajik, Sikkuy, Bimkom, Musawa, Adale, and more.
We began with an introduction from Enaya, a brief explanation of the day's course, and the first activity through which we would try to define the "Al-Biader" association, where we are hosted and about which we will discuss.
After a round of introductions, we began to define different types of associations and place them in a circle with 4 categories. Through the exercise, we understood that different associations have goals in different areas, and they can be classified according to professionals, the length of activity, areas of work, relationship with authorities, and more. We classified the associations written on the notes previously, and saw that some of them began in one area and continued in another, like Rayan, who started with providing services and moved on to community organizing. After defining and giving examples of strategies of "service provision," "support and development of public policy," and "community organizing," we reached the last and least clear strategy among them - "community development." Emily explained that the intention is physical, spatial, and economic development. Building structures and developing the space as a way to change and develop society. For example: religious movements, Islamist movements, economic companies of municipalities, and also - Al-Bayader! This was a good method to understand what Al-Bayader does, and how it is positioned within the space of civil society associations.
Enaya spoke about Al-Bayader's working method. The organization utilizes opportunities that come from the government, and part of its activity is to bridge knowledge gaps in the field of planning and construction in the Arab society. It works in cooperation with the local authority, while the budget comes from the government and philanthropy (matching - half-half). Al-Bayader's position as a social organization working in cooperation with the local authority allows it to mediate between the field and the government, and to connect all the organizations operating in the field.
The specific project that we discussed and learned about is the urban renewal project in "Sha'ar Ha'ir," the southern entrance to Nazareth, which Al-Bayader is promoting together with the local authority and the architectural firm "Mazor."
Our mission on the tour was to imagine the issues and questions that we need to ask the planners who do not have experience with planning in the Arab society in order for them to understand how to approach planning, what the challenges are unique to the society and the place in the various areas. As background before going out, Enaya told us about the project - the vision is to turn what is currently a garage area into a bustling urban center, with mixed uses of commerce and housing (1,400 housing units), and to also lead the planned light rail to Nazareth.
We divided into groups and went out into the field. As one of the few Jews in the group, I felt that the mission was a bit not for me, and I was actually the subject of it. To which details would the members of the group want to draw my attention? My place here was that of a student, listening and trying to understand what the unique challenges are for the Arab society in Nazareth that as a future planner, I need to know about in order to understand how to plan.
On the tour, the group I was in mainly tried to imagine how the plan would look in the field, what environmental restrictions there would be on it, and how to incentivize property owners to enter the plan and build on their properties. We returned without too many conclusions or well-formulated questions.
The collection of questions from all the groups took place after lunch. What are the questions that need to be brought to the attention of the planners who do not know the unique challenges of the Arab society? What are the knowledge gaps?
Many questions arose. Essential and important questions. The collection of all of them together and Enaya's summary clarified the main idea of this visit and why the information collected in this group is important, and moreover be collected and brought out. Urban renewal has been taking place in Jewish cities for a considerable amount of time, and there are economic mechanisms that know how to implement it, systems that know how to incentivize, companies that deal with public participation, social and environmental consulting, etc. In the Arab society, this process is new, and it is also impossible to copy it from Jewish urban renewal because the mechanisms that can be the engines of renewal are completely different. Therefore, the joint thinking of a forum of Palestinian planners on the unique challenges in planning, and especially in urban renewal in the Arab society, and creating a knowledge base are extremely important for success. As Enaya said, Al-Bayader is dealing with these questions, and trying to collect information for the planners, because the planning team that will come will never have enough time to research from scratch all the questions that arose. Al-Bayader also conducts applied training for representatives of the local authority, and creates agents of change among the residents - training, and creating social organization that can work with or against the authority and create pressure from below to promote the project.
Creating a knowledge base together with academia and making it accessible to planners, decision-makers, and local authorities is an important goal that can also be realized through the seminar works of the members of the group - applied research. The urban clinic already began creating this knowledge base - you cn read the first collection here