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This paper reviews the taxonomies and characteristics of Israel education articulated by Benji Davis and Dr. Hanan Alexander while suggesting that their specific educational philosophy, Mature Zionism, ought not be siloed only to educating about Israel but rather extended to Jewish education writ large. Developing a framework of Israel literacy provides an opportunity for Israel educators to develop skills and knowledge about Israel while applying it to the context of Israeli history and society. Futhermore, this paper proposes reclaiming the ethnos identity of Jews, as a tribe or a people, allowing for this concept to be integrated more fluidly within Jewish educational contexts.

Amidst a steady clamor about "learning loss" during the pandemic, a minority of educators have cautioned we must, in the words of Donna Haraway, "stay with the trouble," giving children space to grieve, explore, and make sense of a new reality. In this paper I interrogate what it means to stay with trouble and specifically call for what I refer to as "wander time" to stay with trouble in schools. With the phrase wander time, I reference the 40 years the Ancient Israelites spent wandering the desert after they left Egypt as slaves and before they founded a nation in Israel. Taking a phenomenological approach, I then illustrate the practical implications and the potential of wander time through a study of my then preschool-age son's yearlong self-directed and adult supported multimedia exploration of Transformers (vehicles in popular culture that transform into robots with human-like personalities). I document how through this exploration, my son articulated fears, stayed with, and made sense of troubles. I close by analyzing the pedagogy of wander time to suggest practical implications for schools.

Building on the established idea that to provide students with a full portrait of Israeli society and history, educators must introduce greater complexity into their Israel curriculum, the following paper explores three recently published graphic novels about Israel and considers how each offers opportunities for considering Israel in more nuanced ways. The paper is grounded in recent research about Israel education and empirical studies about graphic novels in education. Each of the three texts highlights aspects of Israeli society that are less frequently addressed in curriculum about Israel and therefore provide opportunities for presenting students with primary sources that directly grapple with the complexities of Israeli society.

This paper examines militarisation in child culture in Israel's transition from a pre-state society engaged in the nation-building process to statehood. The paper studies children's culture and the literary corpus for children created in the 1940s and 1950s in Jewish Palestine, before and after Israel's establishment. It investigates the main stages in the rapid development of the militaristic narrative for children--from the beginning of World War II in 1939, through the War of Independence in 1948, and during the first decade of statehood. By examining the nature of the national-military children's story, I demonstrate the extent to which militarisation in Israeli children's culture was dictated from above. I also argue that society's rapid change following the founding of the Israeli state in 1948 brought about a dramatic shift in the attitude of state institutions, and especially the education system, towards the militaristic narrative addressed towards children that was vigorously promoted prior to 1948. (Contains 33 footnotes.)

This paper starts with a brief survey of how the Israeli education system has handled the issue of the existence of an Arab community in Israel's collective identity, and how this was affected by reforms that were initiated in the education system throughout the years. The second part of the paper examines various possibilities regarding how the inclusion of the Arab collective identity can best be accommodated in the education system and its curricula. (Contains 3 notes.)

Examines the reluctance of educational institutions in Israel and Palestine to acknowledge each other's suffering because of 'the otherness of the Other.' Suggests that educators, as agents of the system, should be dedicated to abolishing this otherness. Proposes a sort of counter-education that will encourage harmony and mutual respect toward others. (Contains 22 references.) (NB)

Evaluates the issue of producing and controlling the memories of the Holocaust as an example of the struggle over self-identity and the recognition of "the other" as a moral subject. Analyzes Israeli refusals to acknowledge the genocides/holocausts of other peoples as a test case for a humanist-oriented moral education. (DSK)

Briefly reviews the use of therapeutic touch in early Western culture and Judaic tradition and by modern practitioners. Discusses modern scientific approaches to therapeutic touch, including its use by nurses. Offers suggestions for and examples of the use of meditation, relaxation exercises, and therapeutic touch with adolescents in classroom and other settings in Israel and the United States. (BC)

Describes a six-month retraining program developed for Israel's Russian-speaking immigrant librarians and information specialists that includes Hebrew language, Jewish and Israeli history, English, and library automation. Differences from the Soviet library system are discussed, including censorship and public libraries, and characteristics of the participants are described. (10 references) (LRW)

This paper examines a key passage in the Palestinian Talmud (the Yerushalmi), on mGit 4.8, that presents a salient discussion about the halakhic meaning of gentile ownership of lands in the land of Israel. Two theoretical moves are evident within the amoraic effort to define it. The first is an innovative turn, achieved through a creative reading of Leviticus 25, that interprets Jubilee law as a model by which gentile possession of the Land is portrayed as a lamentable yet temporary form of partial ownership, similar to enslaved Jews in gentile hands, until returning to Jewish control.The second is a conceptual deliberation on select legal categories of ownership, most notably the concept of ususfructus , which may be seen in light of their centrality in Roman property law, especially given the key role that such designations hold in Roman construction of hierarchies and space. I suggest viewing the rabbinic use of these categories as a subversive strategy, either as an adaptation to the Roman definition of Italic land or in opposition to Roman perceptions of provincial lands, that is, in dialogue with the very Roman notions of space and control over subordinate populations that the rabbis themselves were confronting in the land of Israel.This sugya thus provides a unique view of how these Palestinian rabbis perceived the Roman presence in their land and their mindset as a conquered community and, in a broader sense, a valuable source for better understanding provincial perspectives under the Roman Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents sociological analysis of the linguistic and cultural identity of two of Israel's most influential and high-ranked universities during their formative years, that were also the "de facto" formative years of the Israeli state-in-the-making (1924-1948). We argue that the influence of external universal factors on a nation-state was sometimes crucial long before the period characterised by social scientists as an era of globalisation. Influenced by European nationalism, the leaders of the Zionist movement emphasised the importance of the restoration of Hebrew as a national language. In various European national movements the universities played a central role in the revival or creation of a national culture: the language, the national epic, the folklore were all cultivated and nurtured by the universities. This was not the case in the Jewish renaissance: the cultural revolution took place outside academia. The most cardinal phenomenon in this context--the revival of the Hebrew language--had almost no connection whatsoever with academic bodies. The phenomenon discussed in this essay should not be underestimated by historians and sociologists, especially provided the fact that Israel is traditionally perceived as one of the most successful and impressive instances of nation building in the 20th century. (Contains 6 tables, 1 figure and 4 notes.)

Today, plastic surgery is a well-known profession with highly respected surgeons from institutions all over the world. Over the last several decades numerous clinical and technological advances have been made, thanks to the dedication and hard work of these outstanding professionals; however, things were not always this way. At the turn of the 20 th century, Israel had yet to be introduced to the field of plastic surgery. However, this all changed with the War of Independence. Humanitarian aid by the prominent South African surgeon, Jack Penn, laid the foundation for the founding fathers of plastic surgery in Israel to establish a strong legacy of producing world-renowned surgeons and innovators. Through this paper, we hope to provide a brief overview of the history of plastic surgery in Israel and what transpired to give us the state of surgical practice we have today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scholarship on state-building has devoted a significant amount of attention to the role of taxation in building state institutions and capacities. It has also emphasised the crucial role of taxation in driving state-society relations. Scholars have argued that the linkage between taxation and state building also applies to the area of social policy. In this paper, we draw on a fiscal-centred perspective on welfare state development that highlights the fiscal policy role of social insurance as a revenue raising institution to study the fiscal relationship between social insurance and state-building in Israel and Canada – two 'most dissimilar cases' that nonetheless feature strikingly similar patterns with regard to this relationship. As our findings show, in both cases, social insurance programmes were introduced, designed, and utilized to advance fiscal and economic policy capacity and thereby promote state building. Using these programmes and the commitments they created, political actors could legitimize the generation of revenues, build institutional infrastructure for tax collection, and create capital reserves for investing in the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the “Junkyard” (chatzar grutaot) - a unique educational environment and practice developed in kindergartens on the Israeli kibbutz in the 1940s and 1950s, and still in wide use today in kibbutz kindergartens. The Junkyard, consisting of artefacts of the adult world that are no longer in use, is an ever-changing set-up in which children’s free play is encouraged, with minimal rules for use of time, space, objects, and social relations. Anchored in the writings of its two founding educators, as well as in writings of and interviews with its advocates and instructors over the years, this paper shows how the Junkyard drew on widespread ideas about early childhood development and education, at the same time as it responded to local conditions and concerns. The paper argues that a unique conjunction of factors - material and structural, educational and pedagogical, ideological and cultural - facilitated the process by which the Junkyard was inserted relatively smoothly into the kibbutz educational landscape, in lasting ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: Podcasts have become a main content delivery platform in the last decade. Since not enough studies examined the wider population adoption patterns of podcasts in general and outside the USA in particular, the purpose of this paper is to examine the socio-demographics of podcast listeners and the uses and gratifications fulfilled by listening to podcasts using Israel's most popular podcast as our case study. Design/methodology/approach: The authors uploaded a survey on the podcast platforms aiming to identify their socio-demographic profiles of listeners (n=960) and where they listen to the podcast. Next, the authors conducted follow-up interviews with 100 respondents to understand their main uses and gratifications fulfilled while listening to the podcast. Findings: The findings of this survey indicate podcast listeners in Israel as mostly male, with self-reported high income, under the age of 45, highly educated and nearly half work in the high-tech sector. Follow-up interviews identified that the main uses and gratifications from listening to podcasts were cognitive – acquiring new knowledge, social – a desire to share new data with friends, entertainment, hobby and a way to assist falling asleep. Research limitations/implications: The findings of this study indicate that access to podcasts in Israel is utilized mostly by members of already advantaged and technology-oriented groups, thus potentially widening existing societal gaps. Originality/value: The study examines the podcast adoption in a country whose podcast adoption patterns were not yet explored, thus contributes toward mapping of the global usage of podcasts. It portrays podcasts in Israel as a platform used mostly by members of privileged and technology-oriented groups, which is similar to findings regarding the demographics of podcast listeners in the USA. Some of the uses and gratifications are similar to that in the USA while others, such as the desire to share knowledge and efficient time management, are unique and reflect the impact of the local culture and conditions on podcast adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contrasts two ideas of journalism as a ritual of communication and as a ritual of an objective professional norm by textually analyzing five newspapers’ coverage of the 2004 presidential campaign between John Kerry and President George W. Bush, whose mnemonic battles over Vietnam served to illustrate two fundamental concepts of objective history and cultural memory. Journalists’ professional norms failed to reframe the politicized memories in any meaningful way. Instead, journalists used the conflicting collective memory as the substitute frame, reenacting the original conflict in the newspapers. This paper explores a specific example of how memory processes are employed through journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Druzes in Israel have been accused of being completely loyal to the Israeli state since 1948. This study will challenge the so-called “Druze–Zionist covenant”. The aim of the paper is to show that the Druze fought Zionism in 1948 and later accommodated the Israeli state as the only viable choice to survive in the land of their ancestors. For this purpose, the paper will investigate the role of the Druze community in the 1948 war, followed by the Druze struggle to preserve their Islamic and Arab identity in the face of the Israeli attempts of ethnicizing the Druze. The Druze religious establishment and some Druze elites who happen to adhere to Arab nationalism challenged the Israeli state by capitalizing on the historical ties of the Druze faith with Islam and Arabism. The policy of Israel is aimed at detaching the Druze from their Arab belongings, thus the introduction of mandatory military service to the community. The paper will conclude by explaining the Druze policy of accommodation toward the Israeli state and its relation to the concept oftaqiyah(dissimulation) from a political perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focuses on archive resources of Zionism and Israel. History of Zionism; Most important collection of printed material about Jews and Israel; Collection of the oral history of Zionism at the Institute of Contemporary Jewry of the Hebrew University.

This paper proposes to explore the role of immigration in the making of places. Departing from the assumption that "[...] the reconstruction of spaces and places within the City [i]s an active part of the reordering of the wider relations within which the City is set [...]" (Massey et al. in City worlds. Routledge in association with the Open University, London, p 107, 1999), it addresses the relations between place, placemaking and immigration. The article draws on an empirical study carried out in an Israeli town located at the border of Lebanon, which was established in the 1950s with the purpose of settling new Jewish immigrants. It stages the life stories of various informants to the research, and the embodied character of these experiences, which all contribute to the production of the place under scrutiny. This micro-history of a place enables to identify the current immigration policy in place, and the motives which underlie it. As the article demonstrates, the narratives of each informant, inscribed in collective patterns, show the extent to which immigration is a crucial issue through which the city repositions itself within national narratives of nationbuilding. Additionally, they inform the transformations of power relations both in and out of the city, and the way the 'imaginaries of place' (Walker and Leitner in Urban Geogr 32(2):156–178, 2011) have shifted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The translation perspective explores the travel of policy ideas, programmes and practices across international boundaries, focusing on the process through which interpretative agents introduce and adjust borrowed policy items to a new policy context. Current research emphasises the significance of local networks' support for translation's efficacy. However, we know little about how such networks are maintained and stabilized over time or how changing configurations and capacities may affect translation's prospects. This paper explores the case of Israel's attempted institutionalisation of workfare – an enduring international policy fashion – from 1998 to the present day. We follow the stabilization and destabilization of the local translation network across different levels and sites of policy design and implementation, analysing emerging conflicts and agreements at each site. We use the metaphor 'episodes of translation' to explore translation's value as a concept accounting for local policy change. In order for translation-led policy change to maintain legitimacy and actualisation in contested domains, ongoing engagement of existing and emerging policy actors is essential. This case demonstrates how when networks become destabilized, translation-led policy change may come to a halt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological documentation of imports in a given region can contribute to our knowledge about ancient economy and society. This paper deals with imported fine ware between the fourth and seventh centuries in northern Israel, later known as Palaestina Secunda. Samples of imports from two field surveys covering dozens of rural sites in the region are presented and compared with published assemblages from excavated sites. An analysis of these findings indicates that such vessels were first imported to the region in the fourth century from North Africa and Cyprus and were followed by imports from Asia Minor from the fifth century on. The quantities of imported wares, found at sites ranging from large poleis to the smallest and most remote villages, indicate that these vessels were not limited to the higher social strata but were common and widely accessible. Contrary to previous opinions, the findings show that Jews did not avoid using imported pottery during this period. It seems, however, that Samaritans avoided using these imports, probably due to their stringent purity laws. The paper concludes with a discussion of the economic implications that may be drawn from this phenomenon of abundant imports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a study of the cultural and economic changes from a longue durée perspective as reflected in the animal remains from a nearly continuous occupation spanning the early Iron Age through the Roman period at Tel Dor, a harbor town on Israel's Carmel coast. Such long-term zooarchaeological analyses are currently rare. Focusing on the choice of food, as well as on animal exploitation methods/strategies, the paper asks whether changes through time can be explained in economic or cultural terms, whether they can be correlated with changes in the site's material culture, whether they reflect some change in the site's population, or should be explained in terms of the adoption of new cultural norms. The results demonstrate that during a millennium and a half of Dor's existence, there was very little change in most patterns of animal exploitation and consumption. The only apparent change was in the increase in pig remains between the early Iron Age and the Hellenistic and Roman periods. In view of the constancy in all other exploitation characteristics, and in light of other data from Dor, the paper suggests that this change does not reflect a change in the site's population but rather the adoption of new norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the political and personal duel between Golda Meir and Bruno Kreisky. In 1973, the two Socialist statesmen of Jewish origin clashed over the issue of Palestinian terrorism directed against Jewish transit via Vienna, triggering an almost decade-long bilateral crisis between Israel and Austria. For the purpose of better understanding the roots of their animosities, this paper traces and compares the biographies and mind-sets of the two heads of state, arguing that it was the Inner-Jewish divide between Zionist and Diaspora Jews that led to bitter personal and political conflict between Golda Meir and Bruno Kreisky. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Heritage’ is a term that is ambiguous in the best of circumstances; however, it becomes even more so in urban environments where conflicts of identity and culture are pivotal, as in Israel’s mixed Israeli-Palestinian cities. In this paper, I examine the recent redevelopment of the Jaffa port, Israel. Jaffa’s ancient port has had a significant role in facilitating industry, commerce and social ties in the area, and it has recently been remodelled by the city as a cultural and entertainment hub. Through interviews with key stakeholders and observations, I examine the role of heritage in the redevelopment using two broad categories: heritage of the built environment and cultural heritage, including the practice of fishing. I argue that while efforts have been made to conserve the waterfront’s heritage, the redevelopment has resulted in an artificial space that does not speak to the local culture of Jaffa as it is interpreted by the port community, including the fishermen. The Jaffa case study suggests that more attention should be paid to the delicate role of urban planners in facilitating change in a politically and culturally contested environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents the results of the 2009 excavations at Site 30 in the Timna Valley, Israel. The results, coupled with a suite of 11 new radiocarbon dates, fix the chronology of the site between the 11th and 9th centuries B.c.E. and challenge the previous chronological framework of the copper production activities in the southern Arabah Valley. The paper also presents a striking correlation between Site 30 and the recently reported archaeological record of Iron Age Faynan, indicating technological and social unity between the two regions. In light of the new results and reexamination of previously published materials, we suggest that the peak in copper production in the southern Arabah occurred after the Egyptians had left their small outpost at Timna; this activity was an offshoot of the more elaborate enterprise at Faynan. The well-organized Iron Age copper production in the Arabah Valley was based on local initiatives and conducted by local seminomadic tribes, probably belonging to the Edomite polity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late nineteenth century, the Zionist movement emphasized ruralism not only for the pastoral areas of Palestine, but also for its urban centres. This paper explores the emergence of Tel Aviv, the first Hebrew town, in the light of the Zionist rural/pastoral ideology and within the late nineteenth century discourse on city planning. It discusses early Tel Aviv's rural images and the various means that were implemented by local and international planners, Zionist cultural agents, volunteer organizations and residents in order to materialize the green vision for the first Hebrew town. This paper argues that till the mid-1930s, the development of Tel Aviv discarded the common modern dichotomy of nature/culture or pastoral/urban, proving that the development of the rural, agricultural landscape and the construction of the urban metropolis were complementary facets of the Zionist dream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political use of urban planning in the Middle East is the focus of Samer Bagaeen's paper (in this issue) and of earlier work by Safier and Bollens (both in Vol. 5, No. 2, 2001). This paper looks at the politics of UNESCO's recognition of the "White City" in Tel Aviv as a World Heritage Site. LeVine offers a critique of the heritage designation which excludes "Jaffa from the narrative of the region's modern architecture and planning" and argues that UNESCO's award--in its motivation and geographical designation--reinforces the myth that Tel Aviv emerged as a city independently from its Palestinian Arab environment. "The fact is that Palestinian Arabs helped build the town from the start, and continued to work, shop, play and in some cases live there right up to 1948." LeVine concludes with a plea "to acknowledge the crucial roles played by both Jaffa and Tel Aviv, and their conflicted yet vital relationship, on the development of the two national movements still struggling to find a home in their ancestral land". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration to Israel by Jews from western countries has been growing over recent years. Jerusalem attracts more of these mainly religious immigrants than any other city in Israel. They are a desired population by the State of Israel, and for many reasons can be considered privileged immigrants. The way Diaspora Jews imagine Israel and Jerusalem plays a crucial role in their decision to move there. Many of these lifestyle/homecoming immigrants find their way to Baka, where they can live near other expatriates and enjoy the comforts of the ethnic enclave. The paper deals with the spatial and cultural implications that privileged lifestyle migration has on the space in which it settles. It focuses particularly on the case-study of English- and French-speaking Jewish immigrants who live in Baka and on their effects on the neighbourhood’s gentrification process, its real estate market and issues of consumerism and belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Israeli rule over the territories it occupied in the June 1967 war has been the subject of animated international debate in the past half century. This article explores the policy-making process behind Israel’s immediate postwar propaganda and public diplomacy, or “hasbara” in Hebrew, intended to put before foreign audiences the necessity and legitimacy of the occupation. Based on unpublished archival sources, this paper will delineate and analyze the Israeli government’s numerous difficulties in explaining the occupation, faced by media and other reports of Palestinian postwar hardship and resistance to Israeli rule, as well as the harsh measures enforcing Israeli military control and the beginning of Israeli settlement. It also demonstrates the problem of conflicting demands placed on the Israeli government by its domestic audience. It finally argues that the perceived dent to Israel’s image so often discussed by its government and public, has much to say generally about the limits of any propaganda and public diplomacy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective:This is an invited paper for a special issue on international perspectives on training and practice in clinical neuropsychology. We provide a review of the status of clinical neuropsychology in Israel, including the history of neuropsychological, educational, and accreditation requirements to become a clinical neuropsychologist and to practice clinical neuropsychology.Method:The information is based primarily on the personal knowledge of the authors who have been practicing clinical neuropsychology for over three decades and hold various administrative and academic positions in this field. Second, we conducted three ad hoc surveys among clinical and rehabilitation psychologists; heads of academic programs for rehabilitation and neuropsychology; and heads of accredited service providers. Third, we present a literature review of publications by clinical neuropsychologists in Israel.Results:Most of the clinical neuropsychologists are graduates of either rehabilitation or clinical training programs. The vast majority of neuropsychologists are affiliated with rehabilitation psychology. The training programs (2–3 years of graduate school) provide solid therapeutic and diagnostic skills to the students. Seventy-five percent of the participants in this survey are employed at least part-time by public or state-funded institutions. Israeli neuropsychologists are heavily involved in case management, including vocational counseling, and rehabilitation psychotherapy.Conclusions and future goals:Although clinical neuropsychologists in Israel are well educated and valued by all health professionals, there are still several challenges that must be addressed in order to further advance the field and the profession. These included the need for Hebrew-language standardized and normalized neuropsychological tests and the application of evidence-based interventions in neuropsychological rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the development of the structures of university governance at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem between the 1920s and 1960s. The model that ultimately prevailed, a state-sponsored model of governance, dominated the higher education system in Israel until the early 2000s and was characterised by the dominance of academic faculty, a status that the government accorded to the faculty in exchange for their acceptance of the state's normative vision for universities' role in society. Two main governance models that were instituted at the HU are identified: (1) the Diaspora university, 1925-1950, a distinctive governance model that emerged in the pre-state period and was controlled by Jewish communities in the Diaspora, and (2) the state university, 1950s-2000s, which shifted the centre of gravity to the state. These models are further divided into sub-models and the processes described through which academic autonomy was institutionalised during a period of nation-building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Karaites are a Jewish group formed between the 8th and 10th centuries. Throughout their history, they lived in constant confrontation with the usually larger and stronger group of Rabbani'im (the Hebrew Karaite name for non-Karaite Jews) over the definition of Jewishness. This confrontation threatened to continue in Israel following Karaite immigration in the 1950s and 1960s. As the politically weaker of the two groups, the Karaites were forced to contend with their double status in Israel-Israeli Jews according to the Law of Return, yet questionable Jews in Rabbani eyes. This threatened not only their perceived Jewish identity but also their 'Israeliness' and national belonging. This paper analyzes stories recounted by members of a Karaite moshav (a smallholder cooperative village) in Israel, which express the social position the community views as fitting and presents the teller's portrayal of its fraught position in Israeli society. It will show that, while describing life on the moshav over the years, these stories convey ideas about belonging, Zionism and Jewishness. This reading into the stories reveals the Karaite's version of their identity, as opposed to that of their Rabbani neighbors who challenge their Jewishness, offering a case study in the cultural construction of a marginalized identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1970s, while the rest of the world was undergoing recession, vast economic growth in Iran, leading to fast urbanization, generated a growing international building market in which Israeli construction firms and architects also participated, benefiting from the good bilateral relationships at the time. To examine the experience of Israeli architects working in Iran and how it influenced their professional practice, this paper focuses on two projects planned and built simultaneously by Israeli teams. The Navy project was comprised of three massive housing estates and public amenities for the Iranian Navy's troops and families on the coast of the Persian Gulf. The Eskan Towers in Tehran was a complex of residential luxury towers and a commercial centre catering for the Iranian elite. Review of these cases indicates that national knowledge was not always the basis for transnational planning, and that the international arena itself became the source of knowledge and flow. In the Navy project, the architect derived his ideas from professional practices acquired back home, while in the Eskan Towers project the team was confronted with the free-market economy and a globalized practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present an analysis of an Iron Age I dwelling at the Phoenician site of Dor, on Israel's Carmel coast. We provide a definition for the architectural mental template for this type of house--a Central Courtyard Hash-Plan House. By combining an analysis of the size and layout of the house, and the distribution of artifacts and ecofacts in it, we define rooms devoted to specialized economic activities such as food production and storage and also attempt to identify gendered spaces. We conclude that the house was a self-contained agrarian unit engaged in complex economic activity. The same conceptual plan, housing similar economic activities, can be identified in other dwellings in the southern Levant, from Late Bronze Age I to Late Iron Age IIA. The gradual disappearance of this house type, vis-à-vis the emergence, on the one hand, of smaller and simpler dwellings such as the ubiquitous Four-Room House and, on the other, that of public facilities for specialized economic tasks, signifies to our minds a fundamental ideological and economic transformation, a change in the habitus of Levantine society--namely, the gradual segregation between households and various aspects of economic life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 1967, when the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact partners decided to break off diplomatic relations with Israel following the outbreak of the Six Day War, it came as a surprise to many that Romania refused to do the same. This paper investigates previously unpublished documents in order to retrace the decision-making process in Bucharest and offer a rational answer to the question: why did Romania choose to ignore Moscow's decision? Was it a demonstration of support for Israel as it appeared at the time and, if so, what were the reasons behind it? Archival insight demonstrates that Romania's decision to maintain diplomatic relations with Israel can best be understood in the general framework of its relations with Moscow. Striving to gain autonomy in the Communist bloc and fight off Soviet domination, Romanian decision-makers preferred to engage in their own analysis of the events in the Middle East before assuming one decision or another. Their conclusions led them to believe that Moscow's policy had been adventurous and to break relations with Israel would have implied confirmation and reinforcement of Moscow's role in the Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article examines the bi-nationalistic framework devised by early Zionists and its immediate and long-term implications. Various constituencies including Zionist theoreticians; Arab leaders; and Israeli, Arab, Jewish, and non-Jewish academicians have employed the term 'bi-nationalism'. The manner in which bi-nationalism is discussed varies according to individuals' political goals and their ultimate vision for the state of Israel. The concept of bi-nationalism has acquired new meaning in its application by contemporary proponents that diverges dramatically from its original conception, use, and aims. It is not a fixed and rigidly defined concept, but rather has been interpreted and employed over time by various advocates for either the construction or the dissolution of Zionist society and the Jewish state. This paper highlights key examples of individuals and movements that have espoused bi-nationalist goals, from members of Brit Shalom and Ihud beginning in the 1920s to contemporary Palestinian Arab intellectuals residing in Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the establishment of the State of Israel, Zionist claims to Eretz Israel became realized. Disputes over the authenticity of those claims, however, have continued unabated to this day, and are challenged by counter-claims. Their assertions extend far beyond criticizing the actions of the Israeli government; rather, they focus on the legitimacy of the Jewish state, and the idea that in Palestine there should be 'Jewish' land. Zionism, which was founded on the idea of Jews returning to their homeland in the East, is challenged in maintaining its rights in Eretz Israel because its opponents mark it as irrevocably and permanently Western or in other ways 'foreign' to the land. The first part of this article examines the nature of Zionist claims and contemporary counter-claims. The second part focuses on the challenges inherent in carrying out the normal activities of a modern state in such a contested land. Activities that would elsewhere seem mundane-mapping, zoning, tree-planting, preserving nature, and hiking-are skewed by assertions of the alleged foreignness of Zionism. By examining these and other activities, the paper will illustrate and explore the sometimes-overlooked real-world implications of this unresolved historical debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to further explore the potential for Palestinian oral history to be used as a source for understanding the past. It examines existing directions in this field and highlights new approaches based on a discussion of an oral history project conducted by the author of this paper - a Jewish Israeli - in the Upper Galilee between the years 2006 and 2011. The article sharply illustrates the necessity and the urgency of recording Palestinian oral history with regard to the period that preceded the 1948 war, especially where written sources are lacking. It demonstrates the richness of oral history among Palestinians in Israel and exemplifies its ability to capture a vivid picture of a segment of Palestinian rural life before the Nakba. Methodologically, the article emphasizes the significance of cross-checking non-dependent oral sources as well as cross-checking oral sources against written testimonies as a means of striving for the truth and as a useful way of examining the reliability of oral sources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hundreds of Jews who migrated from India to Israel in the 1950s and 1960s were settled in Israeli development towns. Ironically, many Indian Jews had left bustling urban centers like Bombay, only to be dropped off in dry, dusty, underdeveloped towns in the Negev desert. This article explores the postmigration experience of first-generation Indian Jewish women migrants settled in the town of Dimona, Israel. Drawing upon extensive ethnographic research and personal narratives, this paper analyzes the ramifications of this migration on the social, economic, linguistic, and cultural identities of these women. Highlighting the challenges faced by them as wives, mothers, and members of a labor force, the article underscores the gendered nature of this experience and its impact on the postaliya lives of these Indian Jewish migrants. The article argues that while Indian Jewish communities have successfully created supportive and associational networks across many development towns, Israeli towns like Dimona, which remain largely frozen in time, have also adversely affected the prospects of the second generation born to these Indian Jewish women who made aliya in the 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the history of the relations between the Shi'ite and Druze communities in independent Lebanon. Suggesting that these have turned on the issue of secularism, it argues that the attitude towards the state and its political structure has always taken front stage. Three stages in the relationship can be discerned: mobilization, cooperation, and political dissension. The defeat of the Left and the failure of the secular project constituted a historical watershed in the political behavior of both communities, leading to a regression to primordial loyalties and exclusivism. While this development reflects structural weakness and vulnerability amongst the Druze, amongst the Shi'ites it is indicative of increasing communal consciousness, growing empowerment, and the adoption of new strategies in the attempt to change Lebanese political reality. At the same time, the historical circumstances the two communities have experienced within independent Lebanon demonstrates that the confessional system continues to serve as an obstacle to the creation of a coherent and crystallized political community in Lebanon. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper deals with aging of a remarkable woman from Florida, Wilma E. Davis. After ministering in the Methodist church for over 30 years as the first ordained Methodist minister in the state of Florida, Davis retired and began a PhD program at Boston University at the age of 63. Davis completed her PhD at the age of 68. The pursuit of her education took her to the Middle East where she studied for a year at the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem and participated in archaeological digs. Davis will forever remain an educational tribute to the vision and leadership she exhibited in everything she nobly undertook over the 102 years of her fruitful, intriguing, and fascinating life. [image omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article raises the question of the international legitimacy of the state of Israel. It highlights the debate on the idea of a Jewish polity in Palestine and the role of the Zionist movement in the creation of the state of Israel. Also discussed are the implications of Israel's occupation and settlement of the West Bank in the 21st century for its commitment to partition and its legitimacy in the international arena.

The article explores three successive anniversary celebrations of Tel- Aviv—1929, 1934, and 1959—as an aspect of the cultural and political history of the city. The three anniversaries examined in this paper were celebrated in the "First Hebrew City" phase of the cultural history of Tel-Aviv and, accordingly, their major theme was Tel-Aviv as a Zionist success story. The historical analysis of three successive anniversaries affords an opportunity to discern continuities in the form of festive patterns and recurrent ideological themes. It also highlights period-specific concerns and political contingencies underlying particular anniversary celebrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From its inception and throughout the military sovereignty era, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were endowed with a religious status. In Israeli society, bereaved parents of fallen soldiers enjoyed a special relationship with the army, and their bereavement afforded them a unique place in the shaping of public opinion about security policy. However, as this paper shows, after the first Lebanon War (1982) cracks began to appear in this special union. From the early 1990s, bereaved parents supported by new social movements and a symbiosis of the judicial arena and the media challenged the security-defense-military arena and its policies of commemoration of the dead, treatment of soldiers, accident prevention, secrecy, and even appointments. Using the High Court and the media to directly influence defense and security policy, civil society succeeded in changing the IDF's tactics, the treatment of Palestinian detainees, and thus elevated human rights and international law over security considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes Israeli and Arab historiography concerning the events in the Arab village of Deir Yassin in April 1948, during the first Israeli-Arab war, of 1948. It begins with the internal, left-right Israeli controversy during 1969-71 about the alleged massacre and then describes and analyses what "really" happened at Deir Yassin on the basis of the Israeli (and, to a smaller extent, British) documentation from 1948 that has been declassified over the last few years. It then concludes by describing the evolution of the Israel and Palestinian histographical narratives on the event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to provide more information on the socioeconomic organization of mobile pastoralists in the Early Bronze Age and Early Bronze Age IV/Middle Bronze Age I (EB IV/MB I) periods, excavations were conducted at the site of Rekhes Nafha 396 in the Negev Highlands, Israel. The fieldwork was carried out in 1993, 1994, and 1995. This project's methodological and theoretical approaches for excavating a pastoral habitation site are outlined at the beginning of this paper, followed by a report of the excavations carried out in architectural Units i through 3. The fieldwork identified occupations at the site in the Early Bronze Age, the EB IV/MB I, and Early Islamic periods. The excavations of Rekhes Nafha 396 reveal a complex pastoral nomadic system linking animal husbandry with small craft production in the Early Bronze Age. A working hypothesis is that inhabitants of this site engaged in a trinket trade with the population of Tel Arad. There is no evidence to suggest that Rekhes Nafha 396's inhabitants participated in the Early Bronze Age copper trade between Tel Arad and southern Sinai. The petrographic study of the EB IV/MB I pottery, combined with the settlement pattern in the Hat Nafha survey map, provide potential evidence of seasonal occupations in this part of the Negev Highlands. The find of a copper ingot fragment, together with the results of the petrographic analysis of the pottery, attest that the inhabitants of Rekhes Nafha 396 participated in a regional economy that operated throughout the southern Levant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article traces the development of social work in Israel's Arab society at the turn of the millennium (1996-2006) based on semi-structured interviews with Arab social workers who worked in the profession at the time. The findings show that Arab social work developed under the shadow of an establishment that adhered to a long standing 'politics of contempt', which recognised the needs of Arab society but provided it significantly fewer resources than to its Jewish counterpart, failed to recognise Arab narratives in the training for and implementation of professional praxes, and refrained from including Arab representation in policy formulation. The primary result of these policies was the maintenance of two parallel social work structures – one for the country's Jewish citizens and the second, far poorer, for her Arab citizens – that evolved against the backdrop of the on-going Israeli-Arab conflict and the definition of Israel as a Jewish state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an analysis of revelations from the archives of Israel about United States foreign policy and the US, Israel foreign relations during the Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower presidencies. Impact and effectiveness of US diplomacy in Israel; How the US influenced Israeli policy; Israeli's ability to shape US policy; Information on US and Israeli foreign relations.

This article first of all illustrates how Israeli history schoolbooks fail to represent or misrepresent the culture of Palestinian citizens of Israel, and then explains the ways in which such mis- or non-representation hinders the cultivation of vital democratic virtues like empathy. Following that, the article identifies three obstacles for rendering Israeli school education more democratic: Israel's identity as a ‘Jewish and democratic state’, the socio-political domination of Palestinian citizens of Israel outside the educational system, and the unwillingness to recognise the existence of moral dilemmas. The article concludes that overcoming these obstacles is crucial for improving democratic education in Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]