The presentation will be dedicated to an almost unknown episode in the history of Jaffa and Tel Aviv that reveals the destructive potential of modernist urban planning ideas. In July 1948, Tel Aviv Municipality began a large-scale demolition operation in Manshiya quarter, an area of Jaffa that shared a long border with Tel Aviv’s southern neighbourhoods. The operation was part of an intended metropolitan reconstruction plan for southern Tel Aviv, a key element in Tel Aviv mayor’s ongoing efforts to ‘modernize’ the entire city. Nevertheless, because of their apparent illegality, the actions were presented and justified as an urgent operation for the provision of ‘security’ against hostile attacks. The demolitions resulted in an unrecoverable wound in the urban fabric of the two cities that has never been healed, keeping the two cities apart until this day. Dr. Or Aleksandrowicz is an architect, researcher, editor, translator and a faculty member at the Technion’s Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning. His main research interests are varied and include urban history, history of architecture and architectural technology, vernacular and sustainable architecture, building science and technology, building physics, and urban microclimate.