גאוגרפיה של פחד מטרור בירושלים: בין מרחב פיזי למרחב נתפס

Recent years have seen a surge of interest in various emotions, such as fear, elicited by diverse geographical spaces. In this context, fear, especially in urban contexts, has been researched quite extensively. Given the rise in terrorist attacks in Western countries, fear of terrorism is receiving growing attention. Although expected that fear of terrorism would occur in spaces where terror attacks actually took place, studies suggested that it often appeared in different locations which people perceived as dangerous. Understanding the urban geography of terrorism requires a close examination of the congruence between these different spaces of perceived or physical fear.This article examines the level of congruence between these two types of spaces in Israel, by comparing Jerusalem neighborhoods in which terror attacks took place during the 'Lone Wolf' Intifada (2015–2016) and those which residents reported as fear-inducing. Using GIS, our study revealed fairly low levels of congruence, such that neighborhoods in which terror attacks took place were not always perceived as fearful. And conversely, some neighborhoods where no terror attacks had taken place, evoked relatively high levels of fear among urban residents. We tried to interpret this in congruence by using different social, physical and spatio-temporal explanations. This article aims at a better understanding of the geography of fear, eventually providing tools for local and national policy makers to mitigate the fear of terrorism in Jerusalem and beyond.