3 - (Neo-)Ruralization and the Community Settlement

Summary

Community Settlements are small-scale nonagricultural villages consisting of a limited number of families and with a relatively homogenous character. They were first established by Israeli planning agencies during the 1970s as a tool to strengthen the state’s territorial and demographic control over predominantly Arab areas like the Galilee and the Green Line. Unlike earlier settlement methods that, as part of the nation-building years, relied on ideological values such as labor, agriculture, redemption, identity, and integration, Community Settlements promoted a more individual and neo-rural lifestyle. This chapter shows how Community Settlements became the new leading tool for a national agenda, corresponding with changing ideas in Israeli culture, which was moving from a quasi-socialist society to a market-driven neoliberal one, later turning the neo-rural phenomenon into a suburban one. The chapter examines six different settlements initiated along the Green-Line between 1977 and 1981 – Sal’it, Reihan, Hinanit, Shaked, Nirit, and Ya’arit. Analyzing the development of these six case studies, and how their built environment changed over the years, this chapter shows how the demand for better living standards in small communities situated away from city centres became the leading force behind the national mission of territorial control in the early 1980s.