New Article: Biger, International Boundaries and the Change of Landscape

Biger, Gideon. “International Boundaries and the Change of Landscape: The Israel-Egypt Boundary as a Case Study.” Studia z Geografii Politycznej i Historycznej 4 (2015): 55-64.
 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.18778/2300-0562.04.03
 
Abstract

International boundaries, their history, location, disputes concerning their exact delimitation, their strategically importance, and other facts led many scholars to deal with that important subject. International lawyers, geographers, historians, political scientists, researchers of international relations, cartographers, military people, all are concerned with the location of a boundary, its legal status, its history, its defensible ability and so on. However, the influence of the international boundaries upon the landscape where they run has not received the attention to its merits. This article will present some areas of this kind, where a political boundary brought changes to the landscape on both sides of it. The boundary between Israel and Egypt will be the case study, although some other areas will be presented.

 

 

 

New Article: Hananel, Rethinking Israel’s National Land Policy

Hananel, Ravit. “The Land Narrative: Rethinking Israel’s National Land Policy.” Land Use Policy 45 (2015): 128-40.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2015.01.015

 

Abstract

The land narrative tells the unique story of Israel’s national land policy. Its historical and ideological roots are in the early 1900s, when the Zionist movement and the Jewish National Fund were founded, but it continues to influence spatial policy and land allocation in Israel today. The land narrative is based on the distinction between the urban sector and the rural-agricultural sector and on the clear preference—at least at the ideological level—for the rural-agricultural sector. However, despite the decision-makers’ clear preference for the members of the cooperative and communal rural sector, over time the urban residents’ have received more land rights de facto. This study provides an explanation of this dissonance by exploring the land narrative, examines its broad implications for Israeli society, and discusses its future implications.