News - April 2007
Volume 7

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Learning the Lay of the Land of Israel (Continued)

My mantra was not to get involved in the conflict but to stay focused, so I thought, on domestic Israeli issues, with domestic urban being my alleged forte. But staying outside of politics while studying land, location, development in Israel is impossible. Everything associated with land and location in Israel is political.

I plan to write about the intersection between government planning, the private sector and political interests around suburban development. And by suburbs, I mean any development on the fringe of Jerusalem within the green line (the pre-1967 borders) as well as large scale development in what is known as Greater Jerusalem, some of which is located in the West Bank.

Entire cities have been developed on what we would think of as suburban land. These cities are planned in their entirety by the government. Development is carried out by the private sector.

One city, Modi’in is now 10 years old. Located half way between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, it houses just over 60,000 people and is still growing. Ma’ale Adumin is located on the West Bank just east of Jerusalem. Containing about 35,000 people, it is considered a suburb of Jerusalem because most of its inhabitants work in Jerusalem.

Gvat Ze’ev, also in the West Bank, is northeast of Jerusalem. It houses over 10,000 people.

Modi’in is located inside the green line so its geographical future appears more certain. Ma’ale Adumin and Gvat Ze’ev, while outside the green line and in the West Bank, are inside the security fence. So when (and hopefully soon) negotiations over the West Bank proceed, Ma’ale Adumin and Gvat Ze’ev are likely to become officially part of Israel.

Both my daughter and I plan to return to Israel this summer for more exploration of this amazing country.