תבניות נופים תרבותיים

abstracts

FANTASY AND REALITY: INITIATIVES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF

THE LAND OF ISRAEL SINCE 1904

Arnon Soffer

Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Haifa

From its inception the Zionist enterprise appeared as a kind of fantasy, or something almost

hallucinatory. In the final analysis, however, this impressive enterprise was accomplished,

thanks to a number of fantasists who not only dreamed and imagined, but who managed to

realize their dreams. One of these dreams come true was Rutenberg’s electric company and his

plans for exploiting the waters of the Jordan basin (1920). Another modern industrial pioneer

in Eretz Israel was Nahum Wilbush, who erected edible oil factories in Haifa, not before he had

tried to establish a large edible oil production concern at an independent port of his own in

Caesarea, which was rejected however by the British Mandate authorities. The third of these

dreamers was Moshe Novomesky, who established the potash works at the Dead Sea. It is due

to him that the area changed from a desert and desolate region to an important settlement and

industrial district. Where are the individuals of vision in 2011 that will propel Israel forward,

as these three giants did?

Keywords

: Eretz Israel, industry, electrical company, edible oil production, Dead Sea potash

works.

THE UNHOLY TRINITY OF OFFICIAL PLANNING, WESTERN

PRECEDENTS AND IDEOLOGY

Hadas Shadar

Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion; WIZO Academic College of

Design and Education, Haifa

The planning of new towns in the early years of Israel’s independence was realized by planners

employed by the state. Building for new immigrants was similarly carried out by governmental

public housing entities, though their planning was motivated by more comprehensive goals,

such as “Conquest of the desert”, Creation of the “New Jew” and the “Integration of exiles”.

These goals, at times less enunciated, were implemented by means of a composite planning

process that, in essence, relied on precedents or models copied from the modern western world,

and were used for expressing ideological concepts applied to the Land of Israel.

This article describes a triangle whose three sides are: Israeli planning, European-American

precedents and Zionist ideology. The article contends that political or sociological ideology,

implicit or explicit, dictated the choice of physical planning models and ensured the continuity

of the adopted planningmodels throughout the years. This ideology stands out as an inseparable

part for understanding the planning development of public housing and new towns in Israel.

Keywords

: physical planning, urban patterns, public housing, ideology, precedents.