Civilian Demolition: The Premeditated Destruction of Manshiya Neighborhood in Jaffa, 1948-1949

Abstract

Manshiya was a Jaffa neighborhood that shared a long borderline with the southern neighborhoods of Tel Aviv. In the beginning of Israel’s War of Independence it was transformed into an arena of military actions culminating in the IZL operation for the occupation of Jaffa in late April 1948. Following the war, several parties tried to leave the false historical impression that the military operations resulted in the total annihilation of the neighborhood. This paper claims that the eradication of Manshiya was the result of a premeditated plan that had almost no relation to the damage caused by the military actions. The plan was concocted by Tel Aviv’s mayor, Israel Rokach, and the city engineer, Ya’akov Ben Sira, who shared a common world-view that regarded city plans of massive destruction a legitimate instrument for the reshaping of the urban landscape. Since they believed Manshiya was a hopeless slum, they initiated a comprehensive destruction operation that was believed to be the first step in the reconstruction of the whole southern Tel Aviv region. The operation came to a sudden halt when Rokach and Ben Sira failed to receive governmental financing for the acts because of their illegal nature, leaving behind an unrecoverable and dilapidated urban scape.