To populate or preserve? Evolving political-demographic and environmental paradigms in Israeli land-use policy

Population and pavement: population growth and land development in Israel

“…This indicates that other demographic processes, in particular household size, may also contribute to land development rates, as has been shown for changes in energy consumption. Second, the political-demographic dimension of the Jewish-Arab conflict in Israel continues to precipitate population redistribution policies for peripheral areas where government sovereignty and Jewish demographic dominance are perceived to be threatened (Evans 2006;Newman 1989;Orenstein and Hamburg 2009;Yiftachel 1999). These spatial development policies encourage internal migration of Jews to peripheral regions within Israel, and since low-density development characterizes residential preferences in these regions, population growth here leads to the most significant rise in built space.…”

An elephant in the planning room: Political demography and its influence on sustainable land-use planning in drylands

“…If no urgent action is taken, it may be assumed that in the not-too-distant future we will obtain a very clear map of the future division of the country." The resulting demographic situation does not conform to Israeli government demographic policy, which looked for a proportional increase of Jewish population in the region (Evans, 2006;Orenstein and Hamburg, 2009).…”

“…The Negev was a focus of Jewish development prior to the establishment of Israel. As with all peripheral areas of Israel, multiple justifications have been offered to promote populating and developing the Negev over time (Evans, 2006;Orenstein and Hamburg, 2009), including: 1) assuring that the region was included in a Jewish state in international partition plans (prior to 1948); 2) national population dispersal; 3) local economic stability; 4) utilization of unexploited land and resources.…”

“…The presence of these settlements subsequently influenced the 1947 United Nations partition plan and the Negev was included this time in the proposed Jewish state (Reichman, 1990). Partially due to the success of pre-state settlement policy in securing political control over land resources, a physical presence on the land became a central component of Israeli regional development policy (Kellerman, 1993;Orenstein and Hamburg, 2009). …”

“…They see Jewish settlement as the most effective response to the perceived threat of losing control of land resources and the resulting contiguity of Bedouin settlement with Palestinian areas in the southern West Bank (Bachor-Nir, 2004;Soffer and Bystrov, 2005). These bodies have, since the 1990s, provided tacit and active support for the establishment of single-family Jewish ranches and new low-density exurban communities across the Northern Negev, and in particular in areas perceived threatened by Bedouin expansion, even though the establishment of ranches and new communities is not sanctioned by the national planning agenda (Yonah and Saporta, 2002;Alfasi, 2006;Orenstein and Hamburg, 2009). Several proposals advocating the continued expansion of Jewish settlement in the region use the perceived demographic threat of Bedouin as justification, either explicitly (Soffer and Bystrov, 2005) or implicitly (Jewish National Fund, 2005).…”