Shaping the Acre region in Mandatory Palestine 1917–1948: environmental conditions and conflicting colonial interests

Abstract

This article examines the formative impact of environmental conditions on spatial policies in the Palestine of the British Mandate government. The article focuses on the Bay area extending from Acre to Haifa, whose southern part was a centre of Mandatory and Zionist economic and urban development, while its northern part, the city of Acre and its environs, was a target of limited urban development and attention from the Mandatory authorities. Moving away from common national dichotomies in the study of modern Palestine’s history, this article identifies the environmental conditions and conflicting interests pursued by the various agencies that played key roles in the Mandatory government’s urban and rural development policy considerations.