ABSTRACT
In the previous chapters, I have described and critically analyzed the context through which the city of Lod has been transformed demographically, spatially and politically. In this chapter, I suggest that the consistent concern of the Israeli authorities over “demographic engineering” intensifies the problematic nature of the Jewish settler society, which exists in a bi-ethno-national space. Lod, in particular, despite the efforts and resources invested in the Judaization of the city, has been witnessing a process of Arabization since the 1960s. The reaction of the authorities to such demographic and socio-cultural dynamics is expressed mainly in the politics of fear that surface in the Arab enclave, where informal planning mechanisms mirror, in reverse, the development and “modernization” linked to the Judaization of the city.
