Abstract
How does the discovery of the mausoleum of
Herod the Great in the West Bank relate to
Jewish Neo-Zionist territorial claims? What are the connections between
agricultural farms and social exclusion? And why is it so difficult for
Ka’adan, an Arab citizen of Israel,
to purchase state owned land outside his own town?
In Israel, development schemes often
contain a nationalistic overtone, marked by ethnic delineation and religious
sentiments. This thesis, a cross-disciplinary socio-cultural and historical-geographical
study, examines the role that religion, ethnicity and nationality play in the
creation of “ethnoscapes” and “ethno-classes”. It is argued that the exclusive
religious character of Israeli nationality poses a challenge to distributive
justice and social sustainability. Focusing on the case of the Arab-Bedouins in
the Negev, the relationship between
nationality, demographic design and spatial domination is studied, revealing
the interconnectedness of the politics of space, place, myth and identity.
