Social urbanism and Israel

I am half Jewish, and likely had I been in Germany during Hitler's time, I'd have been killed off, so I have always had (and was brought up to be) sympathetic and empathetic to the idea and reality of Israel as a Jewish state.  [My father's parents moved to the US around 1910.]

OTOH, as heinous as the Holocaust was, nothing can justify treating a population/ethnic group as bad as the Nazis.  Reading about the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the Israelis reminds me of descriptions of the Warsaw Ghetto, or the bantustans in South Africa under apartheid.

It embarrasses me as a member of the Jewish diaspora that this is justified as a way to support Jews (I guess that is the difference between a people and a state).

While I agree with Peter Beinart's position on the one state solution ("A Liberal Zionist’s Move to the Left on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," New Yorker), I don't understand why Israel hasn't taken a social urbanist/equity planning approach to the Arab population--to build and strengthen it--instead of a program of subjugation, disdain and violence.

The best example of social urbanism is Medellin, Colombia, where a series of access and community investments has contributed to a drop in the murder rate of 90%.

Medellin was the center of Colombia's infamous drug cartels, the hub of the world's trade in cocaine.  It was awash in money and violence, with 5,840 murders at the peak in 1991 -- 2022's number of 392 is less than 7% of the peak.

Infrastructure improvements have helped augment the quality of life in Medellin. Cable cars connect the poorest neighborhoods, perched high on steep mountains, to the rest of the city. Paul Smith/For The Washington Post).

But addressing the crime cartels, alongside a program of public investment including in libraries, parks, arts centers and other civic facilities, and especially mobility improvements--a subway, aerial gondola system, escalators for steep hills, bike sharing, etc.--to better connect people who had limited access to the city because of topography, has transformed the city ("From murder capital to model city: is Medellín's miracle show or substance?," Guardian). From the article:

Arley Palomino, 18, says he remembers when just walking to school was an act of bravery. Firefights between gangs could break out at any time. "We were isolated here. The police wouldn't even dare come," he says, lounging under a leafy tree next to the España Library with a small group of secondary school students, lulled by the steady hum of cable cars and the heat of the day.

Since the MetroCable system was built in 2004 and the library in 2007, things have changed, Palomino says. The gangs are still around but the random violence is gone, he says. There is a constant police presence and residents feel proud of their neighbourhood.

"It is in areas that are most abandoned that there is more violence," says Palomino, who plans to study semiotics at the University of Antioquia. "Today we are no longer abandoned here." He sweeps his arm toward the España Library.

Resources

-- "Experiments in Social Urbanism"
-- "'Social urbanism' experiment breathes new life into Colombia's Medellin Toronto Globe & Mail
-- "Medellín's 'social urbanism' a model for city transformation," Mail & Guardian
-- "Medellín slum gets giant outdoor escalator," Telegraph
-- "Medellín, Colombia offers an unlikely model for urban renaissance," Toronto Star 

Past blog entries

-- "An outline for integrated equity planning: concepts and programs," 2017
-- "Equity planning: an update," 2020