Public spaces and governance in Jerusalem: Jaffa gate, public garden and Damascus gate (1871-1948)

This study examines the transformation of public spaces in Jerusalem between 1871 and 1948, during the periods of Ottoman and British rule, investigating the impact of imperial policies on urban spaces and social structures. Relatively free from religious affiliation and characterised by their secular functions in daily life, public spaces such as Jaffa Gate, Millet Garden, and Damascus Gate, which were centres of transportation, trade, gathering, entertainment, and daily life practices, are examined as examples where administrative interventions and social relations can be observed most intensely. Despite the city's sacred status, these areas stand out as unique spaces where different religious communities coexist and daily life continues, with a secular public sphere having been constructed. However, with the British Mandate administration, serious fractures occurred in this structure. These areas, which had previously been used without any sense of belonging, were transformed into places of identity under the Mandate administration's community-based perspective. Consequently, these places became spaces of both representation and conflict. The study argues that space is political, cultural and symbolic as well as physical, and analyses the complex relationship between the concepts of 'political power', 'public space' and 'social identity'. Rather than adopting a descriptive and narrative approach, a synthetic and analytical method has been employed to evaluate the Ottoman and British periods within a paradigm of historical continuity and transformation. The public spaces examined are treated as 'historical structures', and the ways in which these structures have transformed in the contexts of modernisation, communitarianism, and conflict are revealed in detail. In conclusion, this thesis demonstrates that the multicultural nature of secular public spaces in Jerusalem, which enabled collective use during the Ottoman period, gave way to identity-based divisions and spatial polarisation during the British Mandate.