Since the beginnings of Jerusalem 2050 in spring of 2003 when Professor Marwan Awartani, a Palestinian professor at Birzeit University and Dr. Boaz Tamir, an Israeli businessman and MIT graduate, both attended an event hosted in their honor by MIT’s School of Engineering, the project has attempted to bring together in a variety of different forums individuals who share an interest in the daily lives of all of Jerusalem’s residents. This initial meeting spawned a number of discussions from which the idea emerged of developing an international research program focused on Jerusalem in the future.
The project, founded through the co-sponsorship of MIT’s Center for International Studies (CIS) and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), began research in 2003 by hiring researchers to gather information on the role of Jerusalem in the conflict and by holding a course entitled “Cities in Conflict: Theory and Practice,” taught by Diane Davis and Roger Petersen and a course and related seminar series in the spring of 2004 called “City Visions: Past and Future” and "Cities Against Nationalism: Urbanism as Visionary Politics," respectively. The goal of the courses was not only to discuss issues relating to the situation in Jerusalem, but to consider broader issues concerning ways in which ideas of tolerance, diversity and democracy play out in modern urban environments, and to compare the prospects for peace in urban locales where the nation, or nationalism, imposed itself on the built environment and everyday life of the city.
The 2004 course, co-taught by Diane Davis and Lawrence Vale, was designed to engage students in a discussion about the history of the evolution of "the city" from both a sociological and an urban planning perspective. Each week students in the course examined a variety of different conceptual and practical issues including the idea of the city as "a social, legal and political concept," "cities and nationalism," and "rebuilding nations by reconstructing cities." The seminar series brought a variety of guest speakers to MIT, starting with Professor Gerald Frug of Harvard Law School, who spoke about the relationship between cities and nation-states, and ending with Johann Galtung, who spoke on “Cities as Agents of Peace.”
One year later, in April 2005, the Jerusalem 2050 Project hosted the two-day Visionaries Conference, which brought together academics from a wide variety of academic fields to discuss new ideas about Jerusalem and how it might become a more equitable and sustainable city. Representing a range of disciplines and worldviews, they sought to present new ways of thinking about this highly contested city, often drawing on personal experiences from living in the region. The conversation ended with discussion of Jerusalem 2050’s next event – an international, juried, visionary competition.
The Just Jerusalem Competition was launched on March 2, 2007. Open to entrants from around the world to articulate their own vision for a more peaceful, equitable and stable Jerusalem, 1150 individuals registered on the website, of which 250 participated in the submission of 139 entries which were available for judging. An international panel of jurors chose 4 winners and 7 honorable mentions. The 4 winning proposals were generated by 10 individuals, 9 of which were able to accept the top prize which was a Jerusalem Visionary Research Fellowship at MIT during the fall 2008 semester.
During the semester, the fellows attended classes, including Diane Davis’ “Urban Development in Conflict Cities” and Anat Biletzki’s “Human Rights in Theory and Practice.” They meet once a week as a group to discuss their projects, implementation and related topics. Additionally, the fellows met with different experts and organizations working on and in Israel-Palestine, including the Anne Paq, PLO’s Negotiation Support Unit, the Israeli US embassy’s Economic Minister, the Jerusalem Planning Division head, and LifeSource.
Meanwhile, the Center for International Studies hosted the Jerusalem Seminar Series, 5 lectures on various aspects of life in Jerusalem. The guest speakers spoke on topics ranging from the history to architecture to conflict resolution. Additionally, Jerusalem 2050 held an event in December with Anna Grichting on peace parks and reclamation of physical barriers in the urban built environment and co-sponsored a lecture in February 2009 by Eyal Weizman on the architecture of occupation in Israel-Palestine.
Now, Jerusalem 2050 has launched this website to continue the global dialogue on Jerusalem and to advance inclusive participation and effectiveness of those interested in creating a more peaceful reality for those living in the city and in conflict cities around the world.
