Divided perception in a united city: the case of Jerusalem

Presents results of a questionnaire survey of Jewish and Arab high-school students in both sectors (East and West) of the city of Jerusalem. The paper describes the patterns and meaning of urban familiarity, and the purposes and behavioural characteristics of movements across the ethnic boundary. The author concludes that this environmental boundary bears spatial testimony to the social, political; and economic relationships that have emerged between the two communities. The study demonstrates that the different cognitive maps of the urban area produced by the two groups result from the complex interweaving of segregation effects, majority-minority effects, and group performance effects. -P.Hardiman