Search

Mission command is a command philosophy that denotes decentralized leadership; it is a philosophy of command that requires and facilitates initiative in all levels of command and encourages subordinates to exploit opportunities by empowering them to demonstrate initiative and exercise personal judgement. In its first decades of existence, military analysts portrayed the Israeli command system as such and termed it ‘optional control’. The primary objective of this article is to explore the rise and decline of ‘optional control’ in the IDF. The first part of the article follows the development of optional control in the IDF’s first decades of existence until the 1970s. The second part of the paper will describe its decline through the analysis of command in recent IDF military campaigns. The last part is analysis; explanation for the decline in mission command is attributed to four major factors: the changes in Israel’s society and thereof in civil‒military relations; the changes in character of military operations; the lack of appropriate military education; and the role and impact of new technologies on the IDF. The combined effect of these factors impedes the ongoing efforts of the IDF to re-establish mission command as its preferred command philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

All over the world, political consumerism is on the rise and so is the number of studies. Until the summer of 2011, the use of consumer power in Israel was very limited and political scientists did not focus on it enough. But the social protest and the cottage cheese boycott during that summer were a different experience. Analysing this boycott as a case study, the paper examines the question “Why do political entrepreneurs, the boycott organizers, choose to adopt political consumerism as their main political strategy in order to create a social and political change?” Based on the neo-institutional theory and on the principles of the rational choice theory, the study offers the “triangle of political consumerism’s model” which explains the interaction between the entrepreneur, the “Israel is too expensive for us” (Israel Yekara Lanu) consumer movement, the food corporations, citizens as consumers and the state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Construction as commemoration refers to the construction of new settlement outposts and the expansion of existing settlements to commemorate the loss of Israeli life in the occupied West Bank. Popular discourse surrounding this commemorative construction maintains that these acts are aimed at “sending a message” to Palestinian terrorists, asserting that Israeli settlers will stand fast in the face of violence. Settlements, however, grow regardless of what Palestinians do or do not do. In this paper, I argue that when viewed through the lens of settler colonial theory, construction as commemoration is revealed to not be aimed at sending a message to Palestinians, but rather at appealing to the hearts and minds of the Israeli public, and at providing cover for the Israeli government to openly support settlement growth regardless of international pressure. In contrast to commemorative acts like monuments and memorials which are aimed at symbolically controlling space, construction as commemoration results in the material, physical control of contested territory. The discursive framing of construction as commemoration maintains the fiction of a conflictual relationship between settlers and the Israeli government, which allows for settlement growth to continue, in the words of one informant, “with a wink and a nod” – with the tacit support of the Israeli government at the same time that it claims to try to rein the settlers in. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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]

The purpose of this paper is to exemplify a ‘grass-roots’ change based on Dewey's experimental progressive education model employed in the ‘Bridge over the Valley’ bilingual school, a Palestinian-Arab and Jewish school in Israel. In order to identify the progressive ‘approach' underlying this change, the ‘method' that guided the implementation of a bilingual school, it's evaluation and then its dissemination to other schools, we used a qualitative case study method to understand whether John Dewey’s theory of education for peace was able to effect change in Palestinian-Arab and Jewish school education in Israel. The case findings describes the use of the progressive approach of education for peace in the ‘Bridge over the Valley’ bilingual school, as it is expressed in the school’s pedagogy, the implementation of the progressive method and in the accompanying discourse. Reciprocal teacher–child relations are considered an important factor to create fertile conditions for learning. The case findings contribute to our introduction of democratic education in a spatial reality. Underlying this approach stood a pedagogical method and conceptualization for conflict resolution and the opening of a space for empowering dialog for co-existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various papers based on the study of the relationship between secularism and citizenship beyond the North Atlantic Region. It explores the relationship between formations of power and religious tradition and practice. It mentions that the paper of lecturer Humeira Iqtedar shows the complications inherent in citizenship formation for a Pakistani state which is under the control of terrorist. It further mentions the paper of poet David Lehman which is in context to Israel where minority citizenship right is ambiguous. It states that in Singapore the state plays an important role in managing every aspect of religion.

This paper examines the ways in which Psalm 133 contributes to and is shaped by social memory in Yehud. By reading this psalm as a voice within a larger discourse of cultural memories, the images of brothers dwell-ing together, flowing oil, and dew can be understood to fit within a standard narrative structure according to which the Yehudite community fashioned its stories, highlighting a sense of continuity between Israel’s perceived golden age and its anticipated utopian future. In this paper, I argue that through the collective reliving of shared memories, the community was able to virtually participate in the glorious existence that it perceived to be due to it as YHWH’s chosen people, contributing to a sense of collective identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In multilingual societies, not only the names in urban toponymic inscriptions display identity politics and reproduce nationalist discourses but also the languages used. This is clearly the case with multilingual street signs, where specific preferences underlie the choice and placement of languages and scripts, signifying the processes and relationships of political and social power. Applying a historical perspective, this paper explores the politics underlying language preference and script display policies on street signs in British Mandate Palestine between 1922 and 1948 and in Israel after 1948. The paper examines how display and placement of Arabic, English, and Hebrew on street signs has been susceptible to shifting policies drafted and executed by various branches of local and national government. It further analyzes disputes arising from specific policies. The historical perspective sheds light on how political and legal contexts have influenced the promulgation of policies, whereas the semiotic approach directs attention to how the display of languages on street signs encodes political messages and ideological meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 presents information aboutBoletus poikilochromus,B. pulchrotinctus, andB. pulverulentusin Israel. These species are reported for the first time in Israel, and alsoB. pulchrotinctusandB. poikilochromusare reported for the first time in Asia. Furthermore, these three species are reported for the first time in association withQuercus calliprinos. Macro- and microscopical characteristics, distribution, ecology, and illustrations related to morphology and anatomy of the species are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a study of televised political debates based on an integrated model that simultaneously examines verbal and nonverbal communication and their interconnections. An integrative approach yields better explanatory power than a separate analysis of each of these modalities. This model was used to analyze televised debates from Israeli election campaigns and identify consistent discrepancy and nondiscrepancy patterns of behavior of winners and losers. The model also sheds light on gender differences and similarities in a novel perspective of discrepant and nondiscrepant communication styles. A set of propositions on the kinds of behaviors that might be beneficial or detrimental for contenders in a televised debate is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The symbolism of the two complementary figurines found at the Chalcolithic site of Gilat – a woman with a churn and a ram with cornets – is reconsidered. The paper argues that male sexual symbolism of the ram, the seminal associations of the cornets, and their position on the animal’s back suggest that the ram figurine expresses the belief that semen, the vital element of paternal issue, originates in the spinal cord. With her emphasized genitals and the uterine symbolism of the churn, the woman figurine evokes the transformation of the semen into bones in the womb. Analysis of the red painting used in the figurines suggests that heat was considered the physical factor behind the production of semen and its ensuing transformation into bones. The analysis also underscores the importance of blood, the maternally transmitted vital fluid, for the formation of flesh in the embryo. These findings, echoed in other ancient cultures, attest to the earliest integrated representation of the phenomenon of procreation discovered so far. This representation, however, is perceptible only after the viewer is made aware of the hidden continuity in the ceramic wall between each figure (ram, woman) and its associated artifact (cornets, churn). It is concluded that, given that this esoteric information focuses on the mysteries of procreation, the two figurines may not necessarily represent deities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The excavations of R. Amiran and A. Eitan at the site of Tel Nagila are best known for the Middle Bronze Age remains exposed at the site. Yet Early Bronze remains were sporadically excavated in restricted locations where the excavators deepened their investigations below Middle Bronze strata. As such, a study of the albeit limited EB remains furnishes us with an opportunity to provide a more complete settlement history of the site, as well as a limited view of ceramic tradition that was common at the site. The following paper will present the stratigraphic and ceramic information available, and suggests a rather early date within Early Bronze III of the remains, as well as evidence for Early Bronze Age I occupation of the site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper argues that hegemonic memorial ceremonies are typically based on the practice and discourse of de-politicization of the ‘Israeli condition’. Three mechanisms serve such de-politicization: rendering death meaningful; idealizing the fallen and focusing on their transcendental as opposed to their corporeal side and the sanctification of time. Ceremonies featuring these mechanisms are paradigmatic events that perpetuate the hegemonic model of bereavement in Israel. Ceremonies deviating from these practices function as an opposition to static collective memory by acting as extra-paradigmatic sites of memory (Lieux de mémoire). This paper analyzes the Hallal (Hebrew for both ‘fallen’ and ‘void’) ceremony (Tzavta Theatre, Tel Aviv, 2009), that serves as an ‘alternative’ Remembrance Day ceremony. Drawing on the ethnography of ceremonies, we claim that this ceremony is an extra-paradigmatic event on account of its subversion of the de-politicizing mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper introduces the concept of ‘pedagogy in practice’ (PiP), referring to the immediate interaction between students’ learning experiences and school’s pedagogy and distinct from the pedagogy advocated ‘from above’ by the school. We bring the concept of PiP into focus by analysing students’ open‐ended discourse about their learning experiences in 24 open group conversations, comparing two holistically different learning environments (conventional and an alternative arts and sciences (A&S) high school in Israel). The results show that A&S students described their learning experiences as ones wherein they actively steered and navigated their own learning process. Students’ experience of the conventional school’s pedagogy implies that the conventional school’s PiP considers its students as passengers joining a ride over which they have little control. Traditionally, research has looked into students’ perceived learning experiences for the purpose of better understanding their learning processes. We suggest that students’ talk about their experiences is also informative for understanding their interaction with the schools’ pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the planning of Ariel Sharon Park, Israel's largest metropolitan park, in light of the emergence of environmentalism in Israel. It identifies four periods of significance in the park's planning. First, during the first half century of statehood (1948–1998), and in accordance with the state's general environmental oversight, the area served as a derelict backyard for the evolving metropolis of Tel Aviv, with the Hiriya landfill as its focus. The second period started with the closure of the landfill in 1998. It followed the emergence of an environmental paradigm that emphasizes preservation of open spaces for recreation and human use, and resulted in the planning of the area as a ‘green lung’ or a recreational area. Following international trends, the third period (mid-1990s) is characterized by ecological planning, perceiving the park as a locus for various environmental services such as soil and water purification. Currently, the planning process refines the social and spatial connections between the park and the adjacent urban fabric, in accordance with the current discourse on social/ecological sustainability. Discussing Ariel Sharon Park as a case study, the paper traces the broad and general connections between planning and environmentalism within the unique social, political and ideological setting of Israel, and questions the limits of the current social sustainability discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The environment has been forced to the margins of Israeli political discourse in the past and has received little attention from formal institutes. Nevertheless, since the mid-1980s, environmental consciousness and public discourse have increased, mainly encouraged by Israeli civil society. This paper argues that since Israeli governmental and educational systems do not deal with environmental issues, the development of environmentalism in Israeli society is the outcome of a three-step process: first, an increase in the homogenization of cross-border messages; in turn this contributes to the homogenization of principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures; and finally, plays a role in creating a greater sense of belonging to the global community. The paper probes the development of global environmental messages' influence on Israeli society and politics between the two first main UN environmental conferences of 1972 and 1992 by presenting a qualitative and quantitative analysis of The New York Times (USA), The Times (UK) and Ma'ariv and Yediot Ahronot (Israel) during the time of these conferences. A comprehensive survey is presented, along with interviews with representatives from 78 environmental NGOs in Israel that were established by 1995. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper attempts to offer an alternative analysis to the predominantly positivist-rationalist approaches exhibited by most studies of Israel's policies towards the Palestinians. Rather than focusing on realist estimations of power and the national interest as dictating the foreign and defence policies of Israel since its establishment, this paper draws attention to the causes of these manifestations. Using a constructivist methodology, it examines the way in which historical, cultural and religious processes have created a unique Israeli collective identity that can be defined by a dual construct of exceptionalism and siege mentality. Recognizing the centrality of these constructs in political, public and educational discourses is thus imperative not only for a better understanding of Israel's approach to security, but also for creating conducive steps towards reconciliation between Israel and her neighbours. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During the past decade, historians and social scientists have begun extensively to research the issue of philanthropy and charities in general, and that of Jewish philanthropy in particular. This paper reviews some of the main characteristics of philanthropic activity of the Jewish elite in post-emancipation Europe (1791–1878) and especially in Britain. Elite philanthropy was not the only form of philanthropy in the Jewish community. Middle-class philanthropy was another form, and traditional charitable activities constituted a third form. This paper focuses solely on elite philanthropy in England between c.1850–c.1880. Moses Montefiore and Lionel de Rotshchild were two of the most influential leaders of the Anglo-Jewish philanthropic elite. The paper deals mostly with the activities of these leaders of the Jewish community in mid-nineteenth-century Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the city is a central focus of research on diasporic resettlement, little research has explored the city as a site of diasporic return. This paper explores return visits to Calcutta by members of the Anglo-Indian and Jewish communities who have migrated to London, Toronto and Israel since 1947. In doing so, the paper contributes to broader debates about return visits and migrations as well as the connections between cities, communities and diasporas. Unlike research that focuses on the nation and/or ‘homeland’, the paper explores the city as a destination for diasporic return. In contrast to work that concentrates on particular ethnic groups that become minorities after migration and expect to feel an ethnic ‘affiliation’ on their return, the paper studies two communities that were minorities before migration. Drawing on interviews with Anglo-Indian and Jewish Calcuttans, the paper argues that decisions to return – and not to return – are shaped by ideas about the city as home more than the nation as homeland. Moreover, returns to the city are also, in different and sometimes contested ways, returns to the community and are experienced and understood in terms of wider narratives of urban and community continuity and change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the relationship between the strategic behavior drawn from a given political culture and adopted by citizens and decision makers, and the characteristics of policy-making processes. Specifically, this paper advances the concept of alternative politics to describe a “do-it-yourself” approach where citizens on their own adopt extra-legal, and often illegal, strategies to improve their political outcomes. The paper explains the conditions under which such an approach evolves and the ways in which it changes the context and environment of policy-making processes. The study analyzes processes in the Israeli healthcare system that can be compared with processes in other countries. It focuses on the expression and potential effect of alternative politics in three processes: the development of black market medicine, the process through which the basket of healthcare services is decided, and the decline in the public share of financing the healthcare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the framework of the applied social science needs/rights antinomy to describe the efforts of Israel's mental health system in transforming a hospital-based orientation to services for individuals with a severe mental illness, to a community-based recovery orientation. On the one hand, a rationale for the provision of services to individuals with a severe mental illness that stresses these individuals' needs can justify the allocation of society's limited resources by referring to an objectively determinable set of psychiatric needs. However, this rationale may establish an inherent asymmetry between the adequate help provider and deficient help user. On the other hand, a rationale for providing psychiatric rehabilitation services that stresses the fundamental symmetry between the help provider and the help user is empowering, thus consistent with the recovery approach. However, this rationale does not provide a mechanism for negotiating the vague boundary between mental health and mental illness. Israel's mental health system has operationalized a policy that emphasizes rights as well as needs by legislating for a comprehensive set of rehabilitation services that individuals meeting the eligibility criteria may receive. This paper discusses this approach's achievements, challenges and implications for future policy, research, and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between investment in transportation infrastructure capital and the debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio. We analyse the effect of bringing forward investment originally planned for future years to be executed during times of economic crisis and also consider the possible advantages of carrying out such investments with private sector financing. This paper presents a model which shows how policy aimed to encourage investment in transportation infrastructure projects through private sector participation may help raise long-term GDP and thus lead to a lower debt-to-GDP ratio. The theoretical model is then applied to current empirical data from Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines the representation of two major minorities in Israel, Arab citizens of Israel and Jewish immigrants, by focusing on the widely popular genre of reality shows. We demonstrate that this genre contains sophisticated mechanisms of differentiation and selection that inevitably exclude and stigmatise minority participants. To demonstrate this thesis the paper takes a close look at two Israeli reality shows that were conceived to have a public value—Wanted: A Leader and The Ambassador. The examination of these shows reveals how Israeliness—presented as the space of equal opportunity—contains discriminatory mechanisms based on national and ethnic affiliations. Thus, the study illustrates that national identity could be utilised as a meta-narrative of universality and inclusiveness, but actually refers to a particular type of identity that is ethnically restricted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Would it be permissible (halal) for Palestinian Muslims to sign a peace treaty with Israel? In the mid-1990s, with Oslo Accords in the background, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Bin Baz (1910–99), issued a fatwa affirming the permissibility and indeed desirability of such a treaty. In response, the ever-prominent Egyptian jurist Yusuf al-Qaradawi (1926–) issued a counter-fatwa in which he asserted that making peace with Israel would be impermissible (haram) and detrimental to the Palestinians. By the second round of this debate, the Bin Baz–Qaradawi dispute had captured the attention of the Arab and Muslim world. The present paper will examine each scholar's specific arguments and assessment of the facts on the ground. It will also situate this discourse in relation to classical and modern conceptions of jihad, including those advanced by contemporary scholars of Islam, particularly Sherman A. Jackson (in his article “Jihad and the Modern World”). It is argued that while Bin Baz might have been the peacemaker of the two in this particular case, his jihad doctrine – as presented in this very public scholarly debate – goes further in promoting a premodern, conquest-driven formulation of aggressive jihad and the Abode of Islam/Abode of War worldview that undergirds it. It is also maintained that Qaradawi's dismissal of the peace process was primarily the result of his particular reading of the facts on the ground; in fact, leaving aside the actual position of his fatwa, his theoretical framework could be utilized to some extent to support a robust jus ad bellum doctrine, one that accounts for modern institutions and developments. *This paper is dedicated to Professor Sherman A. Jackson. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper falls within the paradigm of postcolonial, interdisciplinary and cross-cultural study. It discusses the assimilative/integrative policies that shape the history curriculum for 1948-Palestinian Arabs as a minority ethnic group in Israel and promotes emancipatory measures for the history curriculum, within the postcolonial multi-ethnic minority/majority context. This paper challenges mono-ethnic thinking concerning history teaching and marginalized voices. It proposes recommendations for ethnographers, educators and policy makers to produce a history curriculum that acts as a vehicle for peaceful coexistence between the 1948-Palestinian Arabs in Israel and the Jews in Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out a new budget allocation formula for schools, designed to achieve a more equitable distribution of educational achievement. In addition to needs-based elements, the suggested composite allocation formula includes an improvement component, whereby schools receive budgetary allocations based on a new incentive measure developed in this paper: Improvement in the Educational Achievement Distribution. The development of the budget allocation formula is demonstrated utilizing Israeli data. Large-scale, nationwide datasets relating students' academic achievement to student background variables, teacher profiles, and school characteristics were analyzed to identify appropriate needs-based formula components and to estimate their weights. The results are compared with the funding formulas currently used in Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a Jewish Arab dialogue model of national encounters which has been developed at Tel Hai College in Upper Galilee in Israel. These planned encounters, which have taken place for eight consecutive years within the framework of a course entitled 'A Jewish-Arab dialogue - action research' are recognized as part of the bachelor degree requirement within the Department of Education. Group meetings designed to build mutual acquaintance and understanding between Jews and Arabs have been taking place for several decades in various locations, including Israeli academia. This model is unique as it consciously directs its participants towards activism in the institution where it is located. Conceived as a process of reflexive identity study and research, jointly examining power structures, the course has aimed for extended, on-campus dialogue between Arabs and Jews, studying, and attempting to reduce the college reality of structural inequities between these groups, thus effecting actual social-political change on campus. In this paper we will describe this encounter model by outlining its characteristics - its objectives and facilitation methods - in comparison with recognized models, demonstrating how by challenging established structures of interventions, we created a different model which has mobilized participants into changing their immediate environment and consequently their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Israeli online public relations practice, including Web 1.0, and social media usage among Israeli public relations practitioners and organizations. The paper demonstrates a gap between the dialogic potential of the Internet and its actual utilization by Israeli practitioners and organizations. Still, it is expected that Internet usage, and mainly social media usage among Israeli practitioners will grow as well as their awareness to the dialogic and interactive potential of social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the highly contested Israeli restrictions on the importation of civilian goods into the Gaza Strip, with reference to a wide range of principled questions within military ethics regarding sieges, sanctions and blockades. Beginning with Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and culminating in its recent easing of sanctions, the paper attempts to bring out the central issues of principle embedded in the political polemic: unilaterally terminated occupation; the responsibilities of a former, though recent, occupier; the semantic distinction between siege and sanction and their respective ramifications; harm to civilians; necessity and proportionality. Overall, it argues in the specific case that Israel's restrictions on Gaza were not indefensible from the start as a first attempt to halt terrorism while avoiding full-scale conflict. In view of their ineffectiveness in achieving these goals, however, the harm they inflicted on civilians increasingly proved unnecessary and therefore excessive. There could then be no justification for continuing to restrict the flow of civilian goods into Gaza, as Israel itself eventually recognized. Nonetheless, Israel retains the right to search and regulate the passage of all relief supplies into Gaza, whether by land or by sea, as well as to secure its own borders for the safety of its citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the success of political leaders who combine a populist style with a neo-liberal agenda to win the support of social sectors that are among the most damaged by neo-liberal policies. The article claims that in countries where a populist movement succeeded in the past to include previously excluded social groups, a populist habitus develops that explains the support given by those same groups to leaders who emerge from those populist movements, even when they pursue neo-liberal policies. The paper compares Israel's Binyamin Netanyahu and Argentina's Carlos Menem to support this claim. [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]

Since the end of the Cold War, there has been an increased interest in the role of religion in world politics. Notably, when it comes to discussions of religion and violence, many studies have focused on non-state actors rather than the nexus between religion and state violence. This paper argues that even though states may pursue a range of ostensibly secular interests, religion nonetheless often plays an important role with regard to the legitimation of state violence. Regardless of how cultures develop, modernise or even secularise, the influence of religion remains: it is sometimes subtle, sometimes secularised and often alongside secular arguments, but unmistakeably present. This paper is structured around three brief case studies of states which demonstrate the important role of religion with regard to the justification of state violence: Israel, the USA and Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The annual discharges of municipal wastewater across the Green Line (the Israeli-Palestinian border) are causing a bi-national conflict with political, environmental, and economic dimensions. This paper surveys the current scope of wastewater facilities in Palestinian communities and discusses the immense challenges to achieving sustainable wastewater treatment facilities. Current Israeli water policy hinders effective regional solutions to trans-boundary wastewater issues. This paper proposes a less confrontational approach to solve common problems. The better management of bi-national wastewater resources could establish sustainable trans-boundary sanitation facilities. This would bring a range of benefits to health, the environment, and socio-economic life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the conflict management for the Israeli-Palestinian territorial conflict. It notes that several studies have been affected by the stories of Palestinian and Israeli practitioners and uneven access to sources of knowledge. It offers a commentary on the three papers in the 2010 issue of the journal "Eurasian Geography and Economics" (EGE) and argues that the papers show the movement beyond conventional narratives to form alternative approaches for conflict resolution.

The main question that is discussed in this paper is the way in which the Ministry of Education in Israel dealt with the changes in the political reality, and the shift from violent relations towards the possibility of peace agreements between Israel and its neighbours and the Palestinians. Drawing on the analysis of official documents - Director General Directives (DGDs) - this paper asks how the possibility for peace was understood by the Ministry of Education and how the role of the education system and educators was defined. It also asks to what extent changes in the political reality have altered the dominant discourses (militarism and peace-loving society) while making room for a more positive form of peace education. The analysis reveals that the changes in political reality have led to the articulation of two unique responses, alongside the dominant discourses. They are peace as a surprise and peace as a disturbance. This paper focuses on these two responses and the ways in which they correspond to the militaristic culture and the image of Israel as a peace-loving society, and how they might shape peace education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of the impact that armed conflicts have on capital markets. It focuses on the recent Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip launched in late 2008 and concluded in early 2009. The paper examines the effects of this armed conflict on the return and volatility of the general index of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), as well as on the government bond index. Furthermore, event study methodology is applied to identify markets' reactions to the Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the preliminary development of visibility analysis models used as evaluation tools during the urban design development process. This paper proposes a measurable morphological approach that can contribute to the planning and design process as a control and evaluation model. The models are applied to an urban case study that is based on the garden city theory. The complex being evaluated is the Bat-Galim neighborhood, located on the northern shore of Haifa, Israel that was constructed in the middle of the last century. The goal is to try to overcome the problematic results and to suggest other spatial morphological configurations that support better results. Doing so improves the quality of the environment with respect to visual permeability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will analyse Israel's past involvement (1956-1973) in Africa, in the context of a wider theoretical conceptualisation of the role of spatial development in the construction of moral geopolitics. Re-thinking the relevance of postcolonial critiques, the paper examines the political and institutional setup underlying Israeli involvement in development in Africa, documenting the scope of this phenomenon by looking at policy makers, professionals and institutions, studying the role of spatial development and planning in the design of Israel's policies, and analysing the actual results of such projects. Despite considerable Israeli involvement and investment in spatial development projects in postcolonial Africa, the existing literature on the subject is narrow, dealing mainly with pragmatic political interests, and there is hardly any structured documentation of Israel's exported spatial development to Africa - its scope, qualities, successes or failures. Moreover, in the wider literature the analysis of spatial development as “exported” knowledge is perceived as a by-product of the polity between Empires and the Margins - an assumption that this paper aims to question. This article is dedicated to the memory of Sara Khinski, with whom my journey to Africa began. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a long-term research seminar, developed in 2001 by Hertz-Lazarowitz at the University of Haifa (UH). The goal of the seminar was to involve students in a meaningful, experiential and cooperative-interactive learning environment, based on topics relevant to their development as individuals coming from diverse collectives to the university campus, and to prepare them for life in an increasingly multicultural society. The seminar was based on the principles of the Participative Action Research and Group Investigation methods. The researchers aimed to create a model of learning, teaching, and action to bring awareness and enable change within the university's community, so that it could become a place of justice, equality, and recognition of the many cultural groups on campus. Since 2001, the Cooperative Participatory Action Research (CPAR) seminar has been offered to students through UH's Department of Education. This paper describes the theoretical framework and the stages and structures interwoven in the CPAR during its first eight years. The authors call on universities around the world to be committed to CPAR seminars within multicultural and conflict-ridden campuses so that social justice will become an essential part of students' experiences and action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A failed attempt to produce a Management Manual for World Heritage Archaeological Sites and Monuments brought together a body of experts in 2002 at Ma'agan, Israel. This paper aims to make the general recommendations of the Ma'agan meeting more widely known among those concerned with the management of archaeological sites. The paper summarizes the outcomes of the meeting, including ideas on the structure of a management plan, the planning process, team building and public participation, site significance, conservation, monitoring, maintenance, presentation and interpretation, tourism and action plans; and includes a select bibliography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the impact of user-initiated housing extensions on the use, function and appearance of the urban space. Interested in the urban tissue, rather than in single buildings, the paper, based on post-factum evaluation, examines the communal effect of user-initiated extensions, rather than the individual benefits to the household. It seeks to understand the dichotomy between the freedom of owners to transform their dwellings and the negative impact such freedom might have on the quality of the immediate residential environment and on the public domain. The findings indicate that had the residents understood the implications of their actions they would have readily chosen the more burdensome route of design control. This suggests the need to pre-plan and coordinate housing extensions to moderate the negative effects of individual extensions on the public space. Toward this, it is important to include residents in planning processes by involving them in decision-making, informing them about opportunities and drawbacks, while assessing their potential to absorb change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will seek to address a new and vibrant development within the field of Israeli-Palestinian socio-politics and social movement studies. By interrogating the received wisdom surrounding social movements as agents bearing collective claims as expressed by Charles Tilly (2004), this paper will suggest that the joint activism around the building of the Wall sees Israeli and Palestinian activists move beyond the traditional liberal/Marxist paradigm of counter-hegemonic action (Gramsci, 1971). Instead, understanding the activism of these activists belongs more within the field of post-structuralism where power is contested from all angles and its networks, extensions and connections identified (Foucault, 1980, p. 145). The activists' actions and motives revitalise the theories of protest-anarchism (Braidotti, 2002) with their insistence on creating change through direct action. They do not act to be granted emancipation by their oppressors (Day, 2005, p. 89), but their actions seek to bring about their own liberation. The Palestinians act on their own terms to ensure the survival of their communities while the Israelis, since they share nationality with the more powerful and repressive actor, the Israeli state, through their actions break down the theoretical barriers that see grass-roots activism as the preserve of the 'have-nots'. By combining post-structuralist notions of networks of power with anarchist ideas privileging pre-figurative forms of struggle over the politics of demand; the Israeli and Palestinian activists of the 'intifada of the fence' offer a break with traditional methods of theorising social movements and asks the question how relevant is much social movement theory today? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of violent conflict on undergraduate students. In order to strengthen student resilience during periods of heightened insecurity, teachers and institutions must identify the difficulties that their students may be experiencing. Based on a case study of students in Israel, this paper identifies specific difficulties that students experience during ongoing conflict. Although this study is based on students in Israel, it opens up a broader discussion of the impact of violent conflict on student populations worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wealth-building, egalitarian argument is persistently used to justify homeownership policies. This paper examines this argument in light of the Israeli housing market experience during the 1990s. Under the pressure of mass immigration from the former USSR, the governmental mortgage scheme evolved to misleadingly appears as a voucher system. This system reconciled two conflicting paradigms: (1) the commitment of Israel to serve as a safe haven for all Jewish people, (2) the rising belief in the merits of economic liberalization. This system proved to be effective in creating a construction boom, and in achieving high homeownership rate among immigrants. Yet, analyses presented in the paper suggest that it led to rapidly increasing prices, chaos and distortion in the housing market, and incurred high costs for small, disadvantaged groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper draws on critical urban theories (CUT) to trace the working of oppressive power and the emergence of new subjectivities through the production of space. Within such settings, it analyzes the struggle of Bedouin Arabs in the Beersheba metropolitan region, Israel/Palestine. The paper invokes the concept of 'gray spacing' as the practice of indefinitely positioning populations between the 'lightness' of legality, safety and full membership, and the 'darkness' of eviction, destruction and death. The amplification of gray space illuminates the emergence of urban colonial relations in a vast number of contemporary city regions. In the Israeli context, the ethnocratic state has forced the indigenous Bedouins into impoverished and criminalized gray space, in an attempt to hasten their forced urbanization and Israelization. This created a process of 'creeping apartheid', causing the transformation of Bedouin struggle from agonistic to antagonistic; and their mobilization from democratic to radical. The process is illustrated by highlighting three key dimensions of political articulation: sumood (hanging on), memory-building and autonomous politics. These dynamics underscore the need for a revised CUT, which extends the scope of spatial-social critique and integrates better to conditions of urban colonialism, collective identity and space, for a better understanding of both oppression and resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that after the failed Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006, the United States government has adopted a counterinsurgency model that promotes intra-Muslim civil wars, especially in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine. It is obvious that the US is here recycling its experience of fighting wars by proxy in Latin America. In fighting communism, though, the US had the added advantage of dealing with a Western ideology. Islamic political ideology is a product of the global south and is still largely incomprehensible to US political and military leaders. If the US is using Islamist groups to fight other Islamist groups, then we are looking at a type of warfare that is more similar to the Algerian civil war than to Latin American wars. Of course Algeria of the 1990s is not the Middle East of the 21st century. This paper simply argues that the strategy that Algerian generals devised and implemented in the 1990s - namely the creation of Islamist groups to fight Islamist opposition - is now being adopted by the US administration to prosecute its wars in the Middle East. Washington has much to learn from Algeria on ways to fight terrorism (US Undersecretary of State William Burns, cited in James 2002). This is a prescription for intra-Muslim civil war throughout the Middle East. Those involved would be seen as proxies tearing the Muslim world on behalf of Israel and the US (El Alaoui 2007). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines religious conversion to Judaism among young 'Russian' immigrant girls in Israel. Looking into the process of conversion in religious boarding schools for girls only (Ulpana) and in the broader context of the Israeli nation-state, we examine the strategies the educators contrive in inculcating religiosity among the girls, how they legitimise and facilitate their self-transformation, and mobilise them to desire a religious subjectivity. At the same time, we study the experiences of the Russian girls in the Ulpana, and the meanings they assign to their conversion as depicted in the personal stories they narrated to us. The paper reveals how the Ulpana operates as a major nationalisation agent that cultivates a path for the girls to belong to the national religious camp, thus assuring their affiliation to Israeli-Jewish society at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]