White City, Black City: architecture and war in Tel Aviv and Jaffa

Tel Aviv, the Zionist project's 'White City', is said to have risen from the sands of the desert. Acclaimed worldwide for its architectural heritage and gleaming Bauhaus-inspired Modernism, it is ostensibly designed to be a safe home for the Jewish people.

However, the reality of the city's establishment was very different. Hidden below its foundations are the remains of Jaffa – the 'Black City', a Palestinian city that was obliterated to make way for European-style architecture at the heart of a newly-formed Israel.

Both a gripping narrative and a unique architectural record, White City, Black City shows that cities are made not only of stones and concrete but also of stories and histories – victors and losers, predator and prey.

This new edition contains a postscript reflecting on the destruction of the Gaza Strip.

'A superbly researched and exemplary architectural study ... If you want an explanation of the roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict - and of just how deep they go, right into the very foundations of the buildings - this book gives one of the most unusual and convincing accounts' - Owen Hatherley, the Guardian

'An important and fascinating exposé; through architecture, geography and history. A sad but revealing history of how myths are forged and histories corrupted' - Raja Shehadeh, author of Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape (Profile Books, 2008) and winner of the Orwell Prize for Literature

'This tale of Tel Aviv's growth from a Jaffa suburb to a metropolis is gripping' - The Economist

'Fascinating' - Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times

'A path-breaking and brilliant analysis that combines architecture, urban design, military strategy and general culture into an exhilarating war of streets and homes.' - Eyal Weizman, author of Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation (Verso, 2012)

'a detailed and useful corrective to the mainstream Zionist narrative about the founding of Tel Aviv' - Times Literary Supplement

'Rotbard's narrative contains fascinating insights' - Haaretz

'"White City, Black City" is not a book about architecture. It is a political text written in a beautiful clear language.' - Time Out

'A challenging book that deserves to be read and argued over. Rotbard here slaughters an especially sacred cow: Tel Avivness' - Tom Segev, Haaretz

'A fundamental, fascinating and clever book on architecture in the service of politics' - Adam Baruch, Maariv

Translated from Hebrew: Orit Gat
Translation editing by Ben Du Preez
Typeset and designed by Melanie Patrick
Paperback: 258 pages
Publisher: Pluto Press (15 Jan. 2015); The MIT Press (5 Feb. 2015); New edition (20 April 2025)
Paperback ISBN: 9780745350936
eBook ISBN: 9780745350943

Publication of this book has been supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts