A mixed city or an ancient historical city? The malleability of heritage in rebranding Lydd

Abstract

At the national scale, Lydd is one of the “mixed cities” in Israel; however, to the Lydd municipality, the city is an “ancient historical city.” Through a discourse analysis of how the Lydd Municipality uses heritage as a tool to construct the city’s image as an “ancient historical city,” this article highlights how the two disparate urban identities align in producing and maintaining histories of colonial erasure. To the Lydd Municipality, the image of Lydd as an “ancient historical city” begins with the Shelby White and Leon Levy Lod Mosaic Archaeological Center, a pristine modern structure standing only a few blocks away from several abandoned and haphazardly cordoned-off ruins from the Ottoman era. Looking to municipal rhetorics and urban development plans for several of the heritage sites in the northeastern portion of the city, heritage is understood as a tool through which national priorities, municipal entrepreneurialism, and colonial erasure coalesce.