By Alex Joffe
Tent camps are appearing across Israel in protest over the high cost of housing. The high cost of everything in Israel (recall the cottage cheese boycott earlier this year) has led to widespread economic and social dissatisfaction, with otherwise serious commentators making overheated analogies to Tahrir Square and the Arab Spring. Something must be done, but what? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to address the crisis, this week announcing initiatives that may go some way toward mollifying protesters in need of housing.
But protestors themselves seem unable to point to long-term solutions, and political rivals on all sides are sharpening their knives.To say that the housing situation in Israel is distorted is to understate matters, as a brief look at the history of the country's settlement patterns illustrates. Very little of this history is "natural." Zionism, in its socialist and neo-liberal manifestations, has shaped the landscape as much as wars. Though Tel Aviv is the center of protests, the city itself is relatively new, having been founded only in 1909. Bat Yam, on Tel Aviv's southern border, was founded in 1926, while Herzliya to the north was created in 1924. Nearby Petah Tivkah, Rishon L'Zion, and Ramat Gan (cities within the Ayalon Highway belt, now each with populations over 150,000) were founded in 1878, 1882, and 1921 as agricultural settlements. Overall, the Gush Dan region of Israel's central coast and foothills, an area of less than 600 square miles, is home to over 3.2 million Israelis, some 42 percent of the population.
But protestors themselves seem unable to point to long-term solutions, and political rivals on all sides are sharpening their knives.To say that the housing situation in Israel is distorted is to understate matters, as a brief look at the history of the country's settlement patterns illustrates. Very little of this history is "natural." Zionism, in its socialist and neo-liberal manifestations, has shaped the landscape as much as wars. Though Tel Aviv is the center of protests, the city itself is relatively new, having been founded only in 1909. Bat Yam, on Tel Aviv's southern border, was founded in 1926, while Herzliya to the north was created in 1924. Nearby Petah Tivkah, Rishon L'Zion, and Ramat Gan (cities within the Ayalon Highway belt, now each with populations over 150,000) were founded in 1878, 1882, and 1921 as agricultural settlements. Overall, the Gush Dan region of Israel's central coast and foothills, an area of less than 600 square miles, is home to over 3.2 million Israelis, some 42 percent of the population.
Meanwhile, Israel's development towns represent another path toward urban development. In the early 1950's, Jews flowed into Israel from Arab countries. The coast was already perceived as overcrowded, and strategic and economic decisions were made to spread these (non-Ashkenazi) Jews into the more thinly populated Galilee and the Negev. Sderot, Dimona, and Netivot in the Negev were created in 1951, 1953, and 1956. Their total population today is around 80,000. Kiryat Shmona (population 23,000) was created in 1949, while the ancient site of Beth Shean gained a Jewish majority only after 1948. Read the rest on:
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