Towns In Israel Research Articles

On the Effect of the "Third-Person Effect": Perceived Influence of Media Coverage and Residential Mobility Intentions

This study demonstrates that third-person perceptions regarding the influence of media coverage of peripheral towns indirectly affect the desire to consider moving. It is argued that regardless of whether people's perceptions of where they live are really shaped by media coverage, if people believe others are affected by this coverage more than they are, they are more likely to consider relocation. We investigated whether the perceived stigmatization of peripheral development towns in Israel has an impact on the desire of their residents to stay or leave, over and above the disaffection with actual living conditions in these communities. Using structural equation modeling (N= 472), we show that third-person estimations indeed influence both perceptions and behavioral intentions.

Dynamics and patterns of the shrinking of Arab lands in Palestine

Abstract This paper seeks to sketch a number of geographical patterns pertaining to the ongoing process of confiscation of Palestinian-Arab land in Israel and the 1967 occupied territories. It points out a geographical pattern and process of “enclaving” and “exclaving”, a form of spatial apartheid and exclusionary zoning which was adopted during the pre-state period of Jewish settlement and has continued down to the present day. The centrality of land possession and its transfer to Jewish national and state ownership is shared by almost all political classes in Israel. Even during key points in peace negotiations over the past several years, land confiscation never ceased nor was interrupted. The present paper employs the term “shrinking” to underscore that land confiscation is a continuous process in Palestine/Israel. This of course has both political and social ramifications for the type of state Israel seeks to be, declaring its desire to live in peace and harmony with its own Palestinian citizens and Palestinians elsewhere once a peace deal has been reached. Seen from the perspective of land, its control and use, this paper argues that there is no other alternative in achieving peaceful resolution between Jews in Israel and Palestinians except a return to square one: redefining a new geography for Palestinian villages and towns in Israel and for those many hundreds of villages which were demolished and have since been obliterated.

Epidemiology of bronchial asthma and chronic rhinitis in schoolchildren of different ethnic origins from two neighboring towns in Israel

Allergic diseases have increased significantly in developed countries for reasons yet to be determined. We studied the epidemiology of bronchial asthma (B.A.) and chronic rhinitis (Ch.R.) among Israeli school children from two neighboring towns, one Jewish (Zichron Yaakov, school population = 585) and the other Arab (Paradis, school population = 658). The children (age range 8-17 years, 567 males, 676 females) shared the same climate and had similar demographic characteristics. They received similar medical care and had the same rates of hospitalization and emergency room visits. The Jewish children had a higher prevalence of B.A. (13.7% vs. 9.4%), Ch.R. (19.7% vs. 9.7%), and stuffy nose (31% vs. 14%) than their Arab counterparts. In addition to ethnicity, parental smoking habits were the major differentiating factor between the two groups: 20% of the mothers and 29% of the fathers from Zichron Yaakov and 2% of the mothers and 60% of the fathers from Paradis were smokers. Smoking fathers increased the rate of B.A. in both towns as well as emergency room visits, but not the rate of Ch.R. or stuffy nose. A familial history of B.A. was the main determinant for having childhood asthma or chronic rhinitis. We conclude that in addition to family history and ethnicity, smoking among mothers was the major contributing factor for the higher prevalence of atopic diseases among Jewish schoolchildren compared to their Arab counterparts.

Using Conjoint Analysis to Formulate User-centred Guidelines for Urban Design: The Example of New Residential Development in Israel

This paper presents the outcomes of part of a multi-year research project undertaken by the authors to develop quantitative and qualitative urban planning and design guidelines for the planning of new towns in Israel. In particular, it explores and reports on the application of a relatively unknown approach in the urban design literature, called conjoint analysis, to elicit residential preferences. The outcomes of conjoint experiments can be used to formulate implications for urban design. The principles underlying this approach are outlined, and the results are reported.

Representation of goodness or badness in contacts of 5-year-old children with mother and nursery school teacher.

The present study assessed children's evaluation of their own 'goodness' or 'badness' in interactions with a caregiver. These assessments were derived from 5-year-olds' responses to interviews where (a) the adult takes the role of a child and addresses the child as a knowledgeable fairy (with the help of two appropriate dolls), and (b) the adult addresses the child directly. These interviews referred to positive as well as negative contacts with two different adult figures, mother and nursery school teacher; and two different child-rearing settings, town and kibbutz. The sample consisted of 72 5-year-olds drawn from both kibbutzim and towns in Israel. Results indicated that children's representation of self-goodness or self-badness, in positive as well as negative contacts, was more positive in the role of self than in the role of a fairy. The difference between these representations was larger among kibbutz children than among town peers. Statistical interactions were obtained (three-way child role by nature of contact by place of origin) for contacts with mother, and were not replicated in child contacts with the nursery school teacher. These findings suggest that the regulation of feelings of goodness or badness of 5-year-old children is facilitated and sustained by 'lived' experiences with significant other, as compared with as if relations.

Classification of Development Towns in Israel by Using Multicriteria Decision Aid Techniques

In research on regional development little attention is devoted to socioeconomic distinctions within peripheral and core regions, rather than disparities between regions. This approach is evidently shared by policymakers, who tend to formulate regional development policies without taking account of existing socioeconomic differences within the regions. Development policy for Israel's national peripheries is a salient example of a homogeneous development policy. The findings of the present study point to the need to reconsider regional development by placing the main emphasis on the fashioning of a differential regional development policy, together with or in preference to a homogeneous or uniform policy. The findings are obtained through application of a relatively new method of multivariate analysis: ‘multicriteria decision aid’ (MCDA). The study suggests theoretical and methodological considerations in the larger context of regional development.

Impact of School Culture on Effectiveness of Secondary Schools With Disadvantaged Students

ABSTRACT Cultural differences between effective secondary schools and average secondary schools were investigated in terms of student participation in school affairs, teamwork, adaptation to school customers' demands, orderliness, continuous school improvement, and emphasis on academic achievement All the schools were populated primarily by disadvantaged students. The sample included 20 secondary schools in development towns in Israel—10 effective secondary schools (5 religious state schools and 5 nonreligious state schools) and 10 average secondary schools (5 religious state schools and 5 nonreligious state schools). The full-time teachers of the 20 schools involved were asked to complete a Perceived School Culture Inventory, and 66% returned questionnaires (N = 724). The results revealed that schools vary in their cultural dimensions, and this variation correlates with differences in student achievement.

Overview and summary: twenty-five-year followup of high-risk children.

We report a 25-year followup of a group of 50 children at genetic risk for schizophrenia (by virtue of having a parent with the disorder) and 50 matched controls. The children who eventually developed schizophrenia spectrum disorders, including schizophrenia, were identifiable by cognitive-psychophysiological, neurointegrative, and social/personality traits in the preteenage period. The children at risk were also more likely to develop other Axis I disorders, chiefly affective. Moreover, the risk of Axis I disorders was significantly greater among children raised in the group atmosphere of a kibbutz than among those raised in their own nuclear families in cities and towns in Israel. The study is a unique contribution to knowledge of factors underlying the development of psychopathology.

Determinants of locals' perceptions and attitudes towards tourism development in their locality

This paper examines how two factors, namely the level of tourism development and the level of attachment to tourism, shape locals' attitudes and perceptions toward tourism development. The study uses data on tourists' perceptions and attitudes collected in four tourist towns in Israel, each place denoting a different level of tourism development. Using analysis of variance and Duncan tests, this study succeeded in supporting the hypotheses concerning the effect the level of tourism development and attachment tourism have on locals' attitudes and perceptions. The results show that the more the town is developed, the less positive the attitudes and perceptions shared by locals. Another finding was that as locals move from non-occupational affiliation to tourism to the higher posts in tourism occupations (managers and self-employed) the level of irritation from the negative impacts of tourism development decreases. The study has succeeded not just in substantiating the hypotheses claiming inter-settlement and inter-group differences in perceiving impacts of tourism development, but has also detected the determinants that shape these differences.

Spatial Integration of Arab Migrants in a Jewish New Town

This paper examines the residential migration of Arabs from Nazareth, Israel, to the nearby Jewish new town of Nazerat Illit. Nazareth is an Arab town with a mixed Moslem and Christian population, while Nazerat Illit is predominantly Jewish. In many towns in Israel with a mixed Jewish and Arab population, the Arabs are concentrated in “ghetto enclaves.” However, in Nazerat Illit Arabs are dispersed throughout the town and are spatially integrated with the Jewish populatio. Possible explanations for the different pattern include the spatial proximity of the origin and destination settlements, the socio-economic similarity of the absorbing and absorbed population, and the dependence of the majority population on the minority for improvement in the former's apartment standards.

Urban Economic Development in a Period of Local Initiative: Competition among Towns in Israel's Southern Coastal Plain

A case-study of six towns in Israel's southern coastal plain demonstrates how a shift from nationally directed industrial dispersal efforts to one in which there is a greater role for locally initiated development strategies leads to the restructuring of the urban system. Semi-peripheral regions attain a growing advantage over the remote periphery, though within the semi-periphery intra-regional competition has intensified. Whereas previously there was a degree of homogeneity in the inter-urban patterning of economic investment, the correct identification of advantages at the micro-level has gained importance in promoting local economic development. These advantages can be utilised by effective local leadership for developing 'niches of success' in the face of general economic stagnation. The local strategy achieving the clearest impact on long-term development paths has been to exploit advantages associated with proximity to a metropolis, particularly by intervening in the housing market and by promoting economic integration with the metropolis.

Cultural-Geographical Aspects of Street Names in the Towns of Israel

AbstractA comparative analysis of the street names of many towns in Israel shows the importance of Zionist ideology in the process of naming, although there is apparently a central core of names boasting a national consensus. As a result of the War of Independence (1948), most of the Arab and English street names were changed, an act symbolic of the Jewish and Zionist nature of the urban environment.

Age at menarche: the influence of environmental conditions.

Age at menarche was studied by the recollection method in two groups of Causasian Jewish high school girls, inhabitants of two towns in Israel, Safad and Elat. The two towns differ mainly in climatic conditions. The age at menarche was found to be significantly lower (P<0.02) in the hot town of Elat than in the temperate town of Safad: 13.30±1.21 and 13.58±0.9 years, respectively (mean ±SD). A significant association was found between the age at menarche and the town in which the girls lived. Accordingly, in the hot town of Elat, the percentage of girls who had their first menstrual cycle by the age of 12 years and earlier, was more than double that of the girls in Safad (17.9% and 7.1%, respectively). It is concluded that the environmental temperature, with or without any possible interaction of humidity, is probably responsible for the tendency for an earlier onset of menarche in girls living in the hot town of Elat.

OPENING UP THE “BLACK BOX” IN EVALUATING NEIGHBORHOOD PROBLEMS: THE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS IN ISRAEL'S PROJECT RENEWAL

How successful is a particular neighborhood program? This question poses a special challenge for evaluation research. This paper demonstrates how implementation analysis can be utilized to reinforce the evaluation endeavor. Israel's Project Renewal is the laboratory. As a large‐scale national program that encompasses most towns in Israel, it provides what few programs can: the possibility of studying a large enough sample of neighborhoods to cover diversity, yet in the context of a small, unitary‐system country that provides the canopy of shared national policy, institutional structure and administrative norms.

The Political Coming-of-age of the “National Minority”

When Israel was established in 1948, in an area considerably larger than that alloted to it by the UN Partition Plan of November 29, 1947, only 150,000 Arabs remained where 800,000 had lived prior to the conflict which erupted when the Plan was announced. Zionist leaders, among them first president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann, considered it a miracle that the emerging Jewish state was practically clean of Arabs. In fact, it was no miracle. The Zionists had conducted the 1948 war in a manner intended to lead to just such a result. It was not only the Deir Yassin massacre (April 9, 1948)1 that induced the Palestinian Arabs to flee their homeland; other, not so well known, but no less infamous, massacres contributed to this process of cleaning Israel of Arabs. Only recently, in August 1984, an Israeli journalist, Yoella Har-Shefi, uncovered the fact that the Israeli army has massacred the inhabitants of Dawaymeh village in southern Palestine on October 28, 1948.2 There are many Galilee inhabitants who can relate their experiences in 1948 and who can describe the mini-massacres carried out by the Israeli army in their region, and its attempts to expel them from their villages and homeland. Under such circumstances, it was a miracle that as many as 150,000 Arabs remained rooted in their villages and towns in Israel in 1949 when the Arab states-Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria-signed the Armistice agreement with Israel. There is no doubt that the Zionist leadership which became the government of Israel was not reconciled to the presence of this very small

Factors affecting the development of new towns in Israel.

"The purpose of this paper is to study and to explain the differences in success among the new Israeli towns as measured by their ability to attract migrants, with the hope of contributing to the evaluation of policies suggested for their revitalization.... Empirical evidence is presented which supports the hypothesis that the social composition of the population in each town has become the major determinant of the ability of these towns to attract additonal migrants."

The Bedouin of the land of Israel — Settlement and changes

Bedouin sedentarization in the Land of Israel during the present century is only part of a far wider settlement phenomenon, but there is a sharp contrast between the two. The Bedouin of the Land of Israel can be considered unique since they underwent drastic transitions in a country whose culture, political regime and economic structure are predominantly Western in nature. Even though they are to be found in many parts of Israel and at times were subject to different political regimes, the Bedouin have remained an extremely individual group. Changes in the life style of the Bedouin began towards the end of the Ottoman era. They continued to live in tents, but increasingly engaged in dry farming and built warehouses for storing grain. Several of the tribes could thus be regarded as “semi-nomadic”. The circumstances of Bedouin sedentarization in the Land of Israel are varied, though inter-related — the basic primary condition was the presence of a strong central government capable of maintaining public security in all areas coming under its jurisdiction. As a result several traditional sources of income such as robbery and demanding “protection fees” were abandoned and the “newly acquired” labour force sought alternative employment. Similarly the division of the Ottoman Empire, the establishment of new and recognized borders throughout the Middle East and the introduction of motor vehicles played an important role in abolishing these age-old sources of income. The British Government and the Jewish immigration were responsible for the development of the country from 1920 onwards. This resulted in two changes: (1) agriculture took over land that had been used for grazing; (2) the relative demographic and political powers of the Bedouin were weakened. The main factors influencing Bedouin sedentarization in the Land of Israel were the following. (1) The new conditions provided work as hired labourers, which compensated the Bedouin for the loss of traditional sources of income, and enabled the increasing population to sustain itself. (2) Greater public security made settlement possible and enabled some to develop irrigated agriculture. (3) Demand for hired labourers caused immigration to the towns in Israel, to the West Bank, East Jordan, and to the oil countries. Drought in some areas also influenced the immigration. There were two additional factors. (1) Since permanent settlers became the major power in the Land, their cultural influence on the Bedouin, who were now dependent upon them, became stronger. (2) The establishment of permanent schools became feasible and the Bedouin allowed their sons to receive a formal education and forgo herding flocks, which necessitated sedentarization. The characteristics of the “Bedouin rural settlements” are the following. They are usually unplanned, lack infrastructure and are generally widely dispersed. It is difficult to locate a settlement-centre and services are virtually non-existent. In several areas a continuum of Bedouin settlements can be distinguished which constitutes a settlement-complex. However no interaction as regards economies, services or institutions can be discerned within the complex. The residential pattern of the village is concurrent with the subdivisions of groups of families, the subunits of the tribes. Several Bedouin settlements in Israel are being replanned in compliance with Bedouin requests and clear signs of modernization are becoming evident. During the sixties, the Israeli government started building planned settlements for the Bedouin which they willingly accepted. By the eighties or nineties, it is expected that the majority of Bedouin in Israel will live in planned settlements and most of the remainder will take advantage of the replanned settlements and accomodations in towns. Bedouin settlements in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) will be modernized and it is probable that some will migrate to the local cities and neighboring countries. The role of the authorities in influencing Bedouin settlements and sedentarization processes will no doubt intensify in the near future. All this leads us to the conclusion that in the Land of Israel we are now seeing the end of nomadism and semi-nomadism.

Description and forecast of summer climate in physiologically significant terms.

The Discomfort Index (DI) was found to be an accurate expression of the atmospheric evaporative (cooling) power, and hence the heat load. It conveys the relevant climatic conditions in summer in physiologically significant terms. From 22–24 units a slight heat load exists, from 24.1–28 the heat load is moderate and above 28.1 a severe heat load exists. The heat load during the month of August was analyzed for 2 towns in Israel: Tel-Aviv (in the coastal plain) and Beer-Sheba (in the northern part of the desert). On the basis of this example a method is suggested to express summer climate as daily hours of heat load. Information about heat stress can be conveyed in terms which are significant physiologically and meaningful to the public.

Comment on "Development Towns in Israel" by Spilerman and Habib

Comment on "Development Towns in Israel" by Spilerman and Habib

Israeli Arab vote in transition: observations on campaign strategies in a mixed town

Anthropologists who have observed election campaigns (for example: Bailey 1963; Cohen 1965; Geertz 1965; Maye^r 1966; Deshen 1970, 1972; Curtis 1971; Epstein et al. 1971; Rosen 1972; Aronoff 1974)1 have contributed valuable insights into the structure, culture, and dynamics of change in the studied communities. Their research has also illuminated the strategies and idioms employed by the politicians competing for votes. Although most of these findings about particular communities or certain candidates reflect society at large, anthropologists have generally refrained from making specific deductions about voting behaviour. They tended to leave such analyses to sociologists and political scientists who collect data by more formal methods,either through representative samples or inclusive statistical surveys. Through the situational analysis2 of the election campaign in one urban Israeli Arab community (during the 1973 national and municipal elections), I shall attempt to identify processes of change in the modes of political behaviour and in the political integration of Arabs in Israel. During twenty-five years (since 1948) of co-existence of a Jewish majority and an Arab minority in Israel, both sectors have undergone immense demographic, economic, social, and cultural changes, as well as psychological and conceptual readjustments. For eighteen months (June 1972-December 1973) I did field work in a suburb of an Israeli city which I shall call Mixedtown,3 one of the main Arab centres during the British Mandate in Palestine. Of the more than 100,000 Arabs who resided there before the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, less than 10,000 remain. Most of them now live in a particular suburb. Mixedtown as a whole has had an influx of Jewish immigrants from various Middle Eastern, Balkan, and East European countries since 1948. The predominantly Arab suburb has also been settled by Jews so that, at the time of research, the two populations in this suburb were more or less equal. In its main social characteristics, the Arab community of Mixedtown is probably similar to other Arab communities in mixed towns in Israel. (Excluding Jerusalem, there are five towns where Jewish and Arab societies live side by side.) The Arab society of the suburb, composed of the Moslem community (about two-thirds) and various Christian communities, is structured mainly on individuals and fractions of families that had remained in 1948 and on migrants from other Arab communities in Israel. Except for a minority of professionals, clerks, traders, and craftsmen, most of the residents are either skilled or unskilled labourers. Descriptions of election campaigns in the Arab sector, with particular