This lecture is not about „Africa“, but rather about Israel. It critically examines the ways in which Africa – as a geopolitical entity – is socially manufactured, collectively imagined but also culturally denied in Israeli politics. The main argument of this presentation is that a genealogical investigation of the relationships between Israel and Africa sheds light on analogical processes of nationalism, development and modernization. Furthermore, I argue that Africa has been and still is used as an instrument in the constant re-shaping of Zionism, which defines itself as a de-colonized Western territorial project. Such a perspective towards „Israel in Africa“ as well as „Africa in Israel“ is crucial for analyzing the demarcation of Israel‘s ethnic boundaries and identity formation according to hierarchies of blackness, modernity and inclusion\exclusion. In this lecture I propose that „Africa“ as a geopolitical concept is constructed through different practices including export of colonial planning models from Israel to Africa, the circulation of architectural knowledge within colonial networks, the implementation of migration policies and border crossing from Africa to Israel, as well as Israeli arm trade in conflict zones in Africa. Through these practices, Israel reproduces its internal racial and ethnic boundaries and spaces – contributing to its geographical imagination as detached, not solely from the Middle East but also from its African connections.

Dr. Haim Yacobi, geb. 1965 in Beer Sheva (Israel), ist Architekt und hat sich auf stadtpolitische Geografie spezialisiert. Er studierte an der Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, dem University College London und der Ben Gurion University. Seine akademische Arbeit konzentriert sich auf den städtischen Raum als politische, soziale und kulturelle Einheit. Im Zentrum seines Forschungsinteresses stehen soziale Gerechtigkeit, Identitätspolitik, Migration und Globalisierung. Sein aktuellstes Buch erschien unter dem Titel „This is not Africa: Borders, Territory and Identity“. Dr. Yacobi ist AIANI-Guest Scientist am Institut für Architekturtheorie und Baugeschichte in Innsbruck.