Yossi Katz

Ideology and urban development: Zionism and the origins of Tel-Aviv, 1906–1914

This contribution to research on Zionist urban settlement in Palestine examines the founding of Tel-Aviv and its development up to the First World War. Tel-Aviv is viewed in a number of general theoretical contexts: urban colonization—the building of modern European quarters alongside old Middle Eastern towns at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century; modernization—the spread of the garden suburb model to various parts of the world; westernization of frontier territories—the urban-industrial stage of the frontier model. The study also examines the effect of the foundation of Tel-Aviv on Jaffa and compares Tel-Aviv with Arab garden neighbourhoods in Palestine at the same period. Zionism favoured urban settlement and this ideological attitude was decisive for the establishment of Tel-Aviv. It influenced the choice of site for the garden suburb, its planning, the selection of its population, and inspired its development as the Hebrew national centre in Palestine. Tel-Aviv began as a garden suburb near an ancient port and was rapidly becoming a town on the eve of the First World War.

The absorptive capacity of Palestine, 1882–1948

This article will shed light on the question of Palestines absorptive capacity as a geographic economic and political issue from the time that Zionism took in interest in the subject until the establishment of the State of Israel. It will examine the methods that were employed to evaluate the question the problems attendant upon these methods and how these methods were modified over the course of time. (EXCERPT)

From Cooperative to Renewed Kibbutz: The Case of Kibbutz ‘Galil’, Israel

This article deals with the process of change which is taking place in the kibbutz movement of Israel, and the structural and organizational changes in most kibbutzim from the model of a cooperative kibbutz to that of a renewed kibbutz. The article deals with the causes of the crisis and the principles of change, the essence of which is the implementation of the idea of economic rationalism. This change is not total nor is it accompanied by a denial of the fundamental values of kibbutz but it has many forms and takes place at different rates in accordance with the characteristics of each economic unit and each community. The research focuses on Kibbutz ‘Galil’ as a test case of a kibbutz which has undergone drastic change against the backdrop of a serious economic crisis and thus it represents an extreme example of a kibbutz which has moved completely to the model of a renewed kibbutz, constituting a signpost for other kibbutzim.

The Transfer of Government Ministries to Jerusalem, 1948–49: Continuity or Change in the Zionist Attitude to Jerusalem?

In December 1949 two significant decisions were taken regarding the issue of Jerusalem. The UN General Assembly reaffirmed its November 1947 resolution on the partition of Palestine and the internationalization of Jerusalem and demanded the immediate commencement of international rule over Jerusalem; and the government of Israel decided to make West Jerusalem its official seat. The historical background to these two decisions has already been discussed in a number of studies. Most of the research has focused on the political aspects and international background of the decisions, generally presenting the Israeli government’s decision as a response, in the form of a “fitting Zionist reaction,” to the UN resolution that severed West Jerusalem from the State of Israel. As to the motive for the UN resolution, it was apparently prompted by the Vatican’s frustration at having the city that was supposed to be internationalized (i.e. Christian) ultimately divided between Muslims and Jews, and the feeling that the support given by the Vatican (through the Catholic states) to the partition plan and the establishment of the State of Israel had proved, in retrospect, to have been a “bad bargain.” However, an examination of the archival material and the minutes of government deliberations in 1948–49 dealing with the bond between the State of Israel and West Jerusalem (defined until the beginning of 1949 as an “area under military rule,” which at the time had around 100,000 Jewish inhabitants), and with the transfer of government ministries from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (or their return to Jerusalem, as some defined it), reveals a far different and more complex picture of the timing, background and motives of the transfer. It appears that the process had already begun in September 1948, with the end of the fighting in Jerusalem, well before the above-mentioned discussions at the UN, and initially without any connection to them. Nonetheless, this was a nonconsensual process accompanied by internal disputes of both a tactical and ideological nature. The purpose of this article is to present and analyze the intensive intragovernmental disputes over the transfer of ministries to Jerusalem that took

The re-emergence of jerusalem: new Zionist approaches in attaining political goals prior to the First World War

Abstract From 1882, the beginning of Zionist activity in Palestine, and until the years immediately prior to the First World War, Zion, i.e. Jerusalem, never received real attention from the Jewish national movement. Indeed, Zionisms attitude to Jerusalems population and to the entire city could he summed up as negative, derisive, estranged and neglectful. Zionist efforts were channelled towards creating agricultural settlement in the coastal plain and in Galilee. In the urban sector, Zionist activity concentrated on Jaffa. Adjacent to Jaffa the Zionists planned the construction of Tel-Aviv, which was to mature into the first Zionist city in Palestine. Zionisms attitude towards Jerusalem underwent a substantial change in the years immediately preceding the outbreak of the First World War. The Zionist Movement grew aware of the fact that its traditional modes of activity for securing political rights and sovereignty in Palestine had not achieved results. The Zionists further assumed that the political future of Palestine would be decided imminently in international fora. This sense of urgency obligated the Zionist movement to adopt alternative and original measures to secure Zionist goals in Palestine. Territorial-settlement activity did not cease but the emphasis shifted to demographic ‘conquest’, magnifying national prestige and cultural ‘conquest’. In Jerusalem, one could apply all three of the new methods in tandem. Zionism intended to achieve cultural influence and ‘conquest’ via a plan to establish a Hebrew University there. This project constituted the centre-piece of Zionist cultural ‘colonization’ in Palestine.

Agricultural land transactions in Palestine, 1900–1914: A quantitative analysis☆

Abstract The paper presents a historical and quantitative analysis of agricultural land transactions between Jews (buyers) and Arabs (sellers) in Palestine at the beginning of the century. Based on data relating to 104 plots (drawn from the archives of the Jewish settlement associations and organizations) and using the hedonic prices approach, it is found that site, relative location, and period of sale explain two-thirds of the variance in price. In addition, the nature of ownership, location in proximity to lands under Jewish ownership, and geopolitical region have substantial effects as well. The last factor is particularly interesting as it relates to nationalistic considerations of land redemption and preparation of a base for a national homeland.

Symbolism and landscape: the Etzion bloc in the Judean mountains

In the early 1940s, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) acquired lands south of Bethlehem in a region that later became known as the Etzion bloc. In the years that followed, the JNF and the Settlement Department of the Jewish Agency established a bloc of settlements on these lands that included four kibbutzim: Kfar Etzion (1943), Massuot Yitzhak (1945), Ein Zurim (1946), and Revadim (1947). These were the only Jewish settlements in the area between Jerusalem and Hebron. During the War for Independence, in 1948, these settlements were abandoned and destroyed, and a total of about 220 people lost their lives almost all the male residents of Kfar Etzion as well as other Jewish defenders who had joined them. Nineteen years later, following the conquest of this territory by Israel in the Six Day War, the children of those who had been killed at Kfar Etzion appealed to the government to return to their homes, and to re-establish first and foremost Kfar Etzion. This effort, finally given governmental approval, became the vanguard of the movement to resettle the Etzion block, which, by Summer 1995, had a population of 9,000 and comprised three kibbutzim, four community settlements, and a town. The motivation in 1967 for resettling the Etzion bloc the first area in Judea and Samaria to be settled after the Six Day War was not primarily ideological, political or security-related, as was the establishment of other settlements in Judea and Samaria. The renewal of settlement in the Etzion bloc its goals, location, and the form it took should be understood in the context of its symbolic significance for the children of those who were killed there, the survivors of the bloc, and the Israeli public in general, and is related to the massive loss of life during the War for Independence and the accompanying trauma. The symbolism of Etzion bloc can also explain the long-held and prevalent view among many Israelis that consensus exists in Israel about the need to keep the Etzion bloc in Israeli hands in any kind

Settlement clustering on a socio-cultural basis: The bloc settlement policy of the religious Kibbutz movement in Palestine

Abstract From the end of World War I, the kibbutz began to play a central role in Jewish agricultural settlement in Palestine. By the time the state was established, nearly 150 kibbutzim dotted the landscape. One of the settlement bodies involved was the Religious Kibbutz Movement, founded in the 1930s, which declared from the outset that its kibbutzim would be organized in clusters. This policy was the product of unique socio-cultural factors (such as the need for religious schooling), and had two components: (a) the territorial component, i.e. the siting of at least three kibbutzim in geographical proximity; and (b) the collaborative component, i.e. the creation of cooperative frameworks that would serve the entire bloc. While it appears that the first component of this bloc settlement policy was fully realized, the second was implemented only in part. Economically, the religious kibbutzim found themselves in partnership with non-religious kibbutizm because of the advantages of belonging to larger regional organizations. At the same time, the religious kibbutzim made their participation conditional on religious observances such as closing down factories on the Sabbath, which was not the case before their involvement. That the secular kibbutzim gave in to these demands illustrates the power enjoyed by the religious kibbutzim as a bloc. Thus, on one hand, the policy of settlement clustering served the needs of the religious settlers in the spheres of education, culture, mutual aid, and the furtherance of common interest, and on the other, it contributed to the dissemination of religious values in the wider community.

Generic Terminology in Colonial Urban Contexts: Garden Cities Between Dakar and Tel Aviv

This chapter examines the various planning practices that stand behind the generic term ‘garden cities’ through an analysis of the inclusiveness and flexibility that are rooted in the term. While garden cities rhetoric and modes of planning in the western world are well covered in research literature, their counterparts in the southern hemisphere or in colonial contexts have gained relatively little attention. In scholarly works, in which comparative studies are rare, garden cities notions and practices have been considered simplistic at best, mere distortions of the original British models. The chapter traces and expands on the dissemination of garden city ideas in the early twentieth century from Britain to French Senegal and Ottoman Palestine. By bringing together Dakar and Tel Aviv (Ahuzat Bayit) our aim is not only to contribute to garden city historiography by an in-depth consideration of ‘other’ geographies. The aim is also to acknowledge the inherent dynamism that is rooted in both garden city terminology and implementation, which corresponds to a rich variety of vernacular contexts (including the global South-East). Semantically and practically, these contexts therefore constitute an integral and essential part of the global history of the garden city planning phenomenon.

Gender, Power and Equality: Women’s Roles in Hutterite Society

This chapter, which is part of a comprehensive research project on the social position, economic role and attitudes of Hutterite women, seeks to examine gender relationships within the Hutterian community. The first section deals with the principles of Hutterite belief and the place of the woman in this framework. The second section describes the female occupations, and the third section discusses the inherent lack of gender equality in the Hutterite colonies. The fourth section deals with the women’s attitude towards their lack of equality. The chapter further analyzes the ways in which women influence the communities in recent years. It discusses where women have influence within the colony and the areas of colony operation where they wish to see change. As in every society, even in the most egalitarian, not every woman wishes to be influential. Despite considerable difficulties, Hutterite women who wish to influence colony affairs can do so. Keywords:gender equality; Hutterite colonies; Hutterite society; Hutterite women; women’s occupational roles