Zionism and agricultural land: National narratives, environmental objectives, and land policy in Israel

The 1990s saw two different and even contradictory trends in Israel. On the one hand, there was a substantial increase in environmental awareness, on the part of both the general public and decision-makers, that led to a change in the land use planning policy at the national level. On the other hand, the Israel Lands Council (ILC), the body empowered by law to shape the national land policy, made a series of decisions that severely violated the principle of preserving agricultural land and led to massive conversion of agricultural land and open space for commercial, industrial, and residential development. Thus the national land policy became incompatible with the land use planning policy and the rise in environmental awareness it reflected.The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes in the ILC members’ attitudes toward the principle of preserving agricultural land. The findings point to a complex and ambivalent relationship, in Israel's national land policy, between Zionist-nationalist considerations and the principle of preserving agricultural land. They also point to fundamental changes in this relationship over time. The analysis that follows can explain the incompatibility between the land use planning policy and the national land policy.