The role of the elite in city expansion: Nablus city in the Palestinian Central Mountains as a case study

Abstract

The growth of cities has been facilitated by a variety of factors. One of these is the land annexation by municipality with the assistance of elite individuals. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the elite influenced Nablus—in central Palestine Municipality’s expansion. The study scanned Nablus Municipality Archives, conducted interviews with the annexed villages’ people and used master plans to trace out the city’s expansion across time from 1960 to 2016 (Jordanian rule, Israeli occupation, and Palestinian Authority rule). The ‘elite’ theory has been used to explain how the expansion process succeeded. The analysis found that elite groups proposed and oversaw Nablus Municipality’s expansion boundaries at various times, delayed master plan’s approval and influenced the distribution plots for popular housing projects.