ABSTRACT
This chapter explores depictions of a neat juncture between modern architecture and Zionism by exposing the profound ideological tensions embedded in the architectural production of the 1930s. It illustrates this tension by pointing to the difference between the work of the Tel Aviv architectural circle—known by the Hebrew word for 'circle', Chug—and the architecture of Erich Mendelsohn in Palestine. The chapter provides the architecture of the Chug reflected the ideology of the socialist leadership, which was inspired by Herzl's political Zionism. It focuses on the ties between the particular traits of Mendelsohn's Zionism and his architecture in Palestine between 1934 and 1941. The chapter describes on Mendelsohn's views about nationalism, Orientalism and the construction of his Semitic identity vis-a-vis 'the Arab' as underlying the Orientalist complexion of his modern architecture in Palestine. The British Mandate and the Balfour Declaration provoked national sentiment among the Arab population of Palestine.
