Introduction
We may not be the best of scholars to advocate a realistic stratagem for an idealistic Jerusalem in 2050, let alone the ongoing Israeli‐Palestinian conflict, but as young professionals at work with seldom means to do something “right” this competition brought out the best of our urges for a humane way of learning and simply being able to use ourselves to the best of our advantage. Our approach might be called by some as being naïve, but we thought very little of the ongoing political approaches that seemed to add smoke to an already benign fire.
The Israeli Palestinian conflict to us seemed like a dead end with hardly any peaceful approaches from either side of the spectrum. But as we progressed from a very basic knowledge of Jerusalem so too did our feelings and thoughts towards the common Israeli and Palestinian alike. This paved the way for creative schematic ideas furthering itself from political content. All that we now see are the endless struggles and sufferings brought on by the unmet needs of people who just want a place to call home. It was not difficult for us to fathom the basic fact that there has to be a common interest for people to live together. When this common interest is not met there has to be a severance of ties or the formulation of a synthetic environment that does accommodate each and every individual interest. This we understand to be the background for the advocacy of a two state or one state solution, both trying to encompass that common interest that would bring about a healthy and stable environment. With regards to this our approach is not towards a politically stable country or countries but a use of physical form in the surroundings as a pathway towards encompassing the common interests, or at least what we perceive to be the common interests, of each individual group. Therefore we wanted to structure a city that would create an independent path for all concerned, whether it would be met in 2050 or beyond that time.
Our methods are then made clear. The use of policies or laws would not be our main tool, although it would inevitably be a consideration in the shaping of ideas, but the method would be the use of a physical structure, something that would not need binding contracts or words, to steer it towards a peace process starting from Jerusalem.
So as Yossi Yonah has written in his paper “A Multicultural City of Mixed Neighbourhoods” so too do we envision this city as transcending the constraints imposed upon it by nation states.
