1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War

Shulamit Laskov, ed., Haim Hissin, Memoirs and Letters of an Early Pioneer (Hebrew), Jerusalem, Yad Izhak Ben‐Zvi, 229 pp.

Ilan Schori, The Dream turned into a Metropolitan — The Growth of Tel Aviv, the First Hebrew City in the World, Tel Aviv, Avivim Publishers, 423 pp.

Ran Aaronsohn. Baron Rothschild and the Colonies; The Beginnings of the Jewish Colony of Eretz Israel, 1882–1890, Jerusalem, Yad Izhak Ben‐Zvi, 322 pp.

Meir Avizohar, National and Social Ideals as Reflected in Mapai, 1930–1942, Tel Aviv, Am Oved, 447 pp.

Aviva Halamish, Exodus — The Real Story, Tel Aviv, The Association for the Study of Illegal Immigration in Memory of Shaul Avigur at Tel Aviv University and Am Oved, 325 pp.

Eli Shaltiel, Pinhas Rutenberg: 1879–1942, Tel Aviv, Am Oved, 2 vols., 703 pp.     

Spatial Reach of Office Firms: Case Study in the Metropolitan CBD of Tel Aviv, Israel

This paper, using the CBD of metropolitan Tel Aviv, Israel, as a case study, discloses the spatial range of linkages of office firms, situated in newly built office towers. The linkages explored, from the results of a sample of 120 office firms, are those held by office firms with clients, suppliers of goods and services, and with other service firms as partners or as subcontractors. The magnitude of the linkages is revealed in the context of Israel's recent entry into the post-industrial age and its rapid affiliation with the global economy, accompanied by functional restructuring of the service economy. It is also visible in the built environment of Tel Aviv, with large-scale construction of over thirty Class A office tower buildings. Complex spatial interrelationships are found, extending from their immediate metropolitan environment toward the world's leading economic centres. Future avenues of research are explored.     

The ingathering of (non-human) exiles: The creation of the Tel Aviv Zoological Garden animal collection, 1938–1948

This article examines the formation of the animal collection at the Tel Aviv zoological garden. Using Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, the article analyzes the images and practices of animal importation. It shows that in spite of the importance of Zionist enthusiasm in driving the establishment of the Tel Aviv zoo, and the attribution of Zionist vocabulary to animals living in it, its significance cannot be reduced to Zionist ideology and practice. The zoo’s animal collection was the product of the specific historical, colonial-imperial circumstances formed under the British Mandate. The gathering of the animals reflects the indispensable British contribution to the development of cultural endeavors in Palestine, and the coexistence of British and Zionist aspirations.     

Like an oasis in the desert: The Israel consulate in Munich, 1948–1953

Yosef Gorny, Zionism and the Arabs 1882–1948: A Study in Ideology Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987, 342 pp., U.S. $67., U.K.£35.

Robert S. Wistrich, The Jews of Vienna in the Age of Franz Joseph. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the Littman Library, 1989, 696 pp.

Shabtai Teveth, Ben‐Gurion: The Burning Ground 1886–1948, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987. 967 pages.

Jehuda Reinharz, Hashomer Hatzair in Germany, 1931–1939, Tel Aviv: Sifriat Poalim Publishing House, Ltd., 1987, 246 pp.

Benjamin Akzin: From Riga to Jerusalem — A Memoir (Hebrew), The Zionist Library, Jerusalem, 1989, 369 pp; Herzl Rosenblum, Drops from the Sea (Hebrew), Tel Aviv, 1987, 207 pp; Dr. Meir Kahan, Carry a Fire to Kindle (Hebrew), Tel Aviv, 1988, 221 pp.

Uri Bar‐Joseph, Best of Enemies: Israel and Transjordan in the War of 1948, Frank Cass Publishers, London, 1987, x+254pp.,£25.     

A Re-Appraisal of the Archaeological Findings at Tel Hashash: On the Archaeology of the Yarqon Estuary from Classical Times to Late Antiquity

Abstract

Tel Hashash is located within the boundaries of modern Tel Aviv. Surveys and excavations carried out in the site by the late J. Kaplan and H. Ritter-Kaplan during the 1960s and 1980s revealed remains and finds dated mainly to the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods. The present paper includes the presentation and analysis of these yet unpublished remains, and a revision of the excavators' conclusions about the function and history of the site in classical times and Late Antiquity, in light of the archaeology and history of the lower Yarqon river and the central coastal plain.     

Proceedings of the 1980 Tel Aviv ethiopianist conference

Goldenberg, Gideon, ed. Ethiopian Studies: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference, Tel‐Aviv, 14–17 April 1980. Boston: A. A. Balkema, 1986. xiii + 530 pp. including chapter references and notes, photographs, and reproductions of texts. $54.00 cloth.     

Simulation Analysis of the Fractality of Cities

Fractality in cities implies that a city possesses a similar structure at several different scales. Its existence is of great significance because it suggests the presence of some hidden process that operates at different urban scales and generates similarity. Recently, we studied the Tel Aviv metropolis at the levels of the entire metropolis and of one of its constituent towns. We concluded that the apparent growth mechanism (called leapfrogging) operates at these two levels. We hypothesized that since it appears at several levels, growth by leapfrogging may be one the fundamental processes that generates urban fractality. In this paper we present results of simulations used to verify this assumption in the case of randomly generated structures.     

The Israeli left between culture and politics: Tzavta and Mapam, 1956–1973

The Tzavta club in Tel Aviv (until 1956 called the Center for Progressive Culture) was founded in 1946 by Hakibbutz Ha'artzi-Hashomer Hatza'ir kibbutz movement. Cultural activity was a traditional means used by political movements to increase their influence in society. However, as part of the “cultural front” of Hashomer Hatza'ir and Mapam, Tzavta had the additional goal of strengthening “ideological collectivism” among the members of the movement and the party. This article analyzes Tzavta's activity between 1956 and 1973, arguing that it was created to combine two functions – cultural and political. Although the leadership of Mapam intended to use the club as a political tool for disseminating the party's views and controlling internal conflicts, Tzavta became increasingly culturally autonomous and eventually uncontrollable.     

Relations between Tel Aviv and Jaffa 1921–1936: A reassessment

From the founding of Tel Aviv adjacent to the Arab city of Jaffa, a new and unique reality arose in Palestine in the form of neighborly relations between a Hebrew city and an Arab city. A deep rift in these relations resulted from the riots of 1921 and 1929, and in Zionist historiography it is argued that from the 1921 riots onward, the ties between them weakened and deteriorated constantly. This article aims to shed new light on the question, and to show that there was, in fact, a clear tendency of continuous improvement in the relationship from the first half of the 1920s until the outbreak of the 1936 riots.     

The family is worthy of being rebuilt: perceptions of the Jewish family in Mandate Palestine, 1918-1948

Although the Jewish community of Palestine was an extremely family-oriented society and the institute of the family played a major role in the establishment of the new Zionist nationhood, the historiography has henceforth paid little attention to its role, images, and functions. This article will examine the diverse and often contradictory perceptions and influences that have shaped the Zionist period. Traditional Jewish perceptions intertwined with modern, bourgeois, and revolutionary notions of the family, whether national or socialist. These contradictory perceptions were manifested in the contested professional and public discourse regarding the many dysfunctional urban families in Tel Aviv, who were treated by welfare authorities and mental health specialists during the 1930s and 1940s.     

Dirty dancing: the (non)fluid embodied geographies of a queer nightclub in Tel Aviv

This paper examines the (non)fluid embodied geographies of a queer nightclub in Tel Aviv, Israel. The nightclub is considered to be a space of sexual liberation and hosted the Friendly Freedom Friday party. Yet, the space of the nightclub is also divided by gender and sexuality. We draw on individual in-depth interviews and participant observations to examine the tensions that arise from, and between, gay men, transwomen and club spaces. A number of paradoxes are present in the club. We argue that the fluidity of subjectivity—espoused by queer theorists—evaporates when confronted with the materiality of actual sweating bodies. We are interested in the visceral geographies of how and where sweat, and other body fluids, becomes matter out of place or ‘dirty.’ Three points structure our discussion. First, we outline the theoretical debates about body fluids and fluid subjectivities. Second, we examine gay men's and transwomen's bodily preparations that occur prior to attending the nightclub. The spatial, gendered and sexed dimensions of participants’ subjectivities are embedded in desires to attend the club. Finally, we argue that the spaces gay, partially clothed and sweating male bodies occupy are distinct from, and in opposition to, transwomen's clothed and non-sweating bodies.     

“The noble pirate”: The Voice of Peace offshore radio station

This article analyzes the case of Abie Nathan's “Voice of Peace” – an offshore pirate radio station that began broadcasting in 1973 off the coast of Tel Aviv. Although the station reflected the diffusion of this type of media transmission into the Middle East from Europe, particularly in its identification with pop music, the Voice of Peace was distinct in its political and ideological aims and in its positive reception. I argue that public enthusiasm for the Voice of Peace reflected not merely the yearning for pop music but the search for a “normal” life within the turmoil of Israel. By “tuning in” to the Voice of Peace, listeners found an escapist heterotopia – an alternative to Israel's hegemonic national characteristics.     

Book reviews

Books reviewed:
Tönu Puu, Attractors, Bifurcations, & Chaos: Nonlinear Phenomena in Economics
Alan R. H. Baker, Geography and History: Bridging the Divide
Robert David Sack, Progress: Geographical Essays
Karl S. Zimmerer and Thomas J. Bassett, Political Ecology: An Integrative Approach to Geography and Environment‐Development Studies
David A. Hensher and Kenneth J. Button, Handbook of Transport and the Environment
Daniel Felsenstein, Eike W. Schamp, and Arie Shachar, Emerging Nodes in the Global Economy: Frankfurt and Tel Aviv Compared     

Review article: Religion,modernization and Zionism

Ehud Luz, Parallels Meet: Religion and Nationalism in the Early Zionist Movement (1882–1904), Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1988 (Originally published in Hebrew — Tel Aviv, Am Oved, 1985), xix + 365 pp.

Yosef Salmon, Religion and Zionism — First Encounters: Essays (Hebrew), Jerusalem, Hassifriya Hazionit, 1990, 366 pp.     

New Evidence of the Purple‐Dye Industry at Tel Shiqmona,Israel

Pottery sherds stained with purple dye were found in the excavations at Tel Shiqmona, and were dated to the Iron Age II period. Analysis by HPLC‐DAD identified the dye as ‘true purple’, derived from the Hexaplex trunculus sea snail, which is associated with the purple‐dye industry that flourished in the coastal area at that time. This result is compatible with the classification of over 1000 Muricidae shells that were found in the excavation. Hexaplex trunculus constitutes 80% of this group, indicating that it was the most commonly used species in the dye production at Tel Shiqmona.     

Restructuring of a metropolitan industrial park: case study in Herzeliyya, Israel

The nature and magnitude of the restructuring processes are unveiled in Herzeliyya Industrial Park, a satellite park of metropolitan Tel Aviv. The processes are explored in the context of Israel's recent entry into the post-industrial age and its swift integration into the "global" economy, using survey data of a sample of 104 firms. Since the mid-1980s the park has experienced functional upgrading in a process of "invasion and succession". Upgrading has been accompanied by high "mortality" rates of firms, and by large-scale renewal. Among the attributes reflecting the functional upgrading are the extended spatial reach of firms for clients and joint venturers, and of their organizational affiliations, expanding far beyond the metropolis into the world at large. The newly arriving firms tend to reveal a different set of locational factors than do the veteran ones. Future research avenues are set out.     

Sport facility development: municipal capital and shutting out the private sector

Regime theory provides a framework for exploring changes in development patterns and internal dynamics of growth coalitions. Academic debates on sport and urban development have focused on large American and European markets, where such venues are increasingly led by urban regimes that aim to leverage public goals through private investment. Based on a detailed qualitative analysis of four projects in three major Israeli cities, this work examines a different typology of sport venue development – ‘public regime’, which operates in a small market context. The Israeli public regime neither allows the private sector to assume central roles in the design, development and operation of venues nor does it stimulate real estate development anchored by the venue. The assumption that professional sports is not a viable business in small markets is used to justify the public monopoly that regards the venues as public amenities, legitimizing the lack of strategic and business plans, producing benefits for the local political elite but doing little to stabilize professional sport and secure economic returns for the public. The more affluent city of Tel Aviv demonstrates a breakout from a pure public regime, where public control is retained but more business-oriented considerations are incorporated.     

Company Growth,Acquisitions and Access to Complementary Assets in Israel's Data Security Sector

This article analyses aspects of high-tech cluster emergence in Israel during the 1990s with focuses on the data security software industry and on strategies of very successful companies dominating such an industry. Most of the industry is concentrated in Tel Aviv and close-by Hertzliya and to a lesser extent Haifa and Jerusalem. It starts by characterizing the industry as a whole and the universe of 19 companies comprising it. It then proceeds with an in-depth analysis of the growth trajectories of very successful companies, some of which are listed in NASDAQ or have been acquired by large multinational corporations. A fast 'IPO' and a 'fast M&A' track have been identified and characterized. The analysis suggests that while globalization could be beneficial to skill intensive peripheral economies like Israel, a significant economic impact may require an appropriate balance between start-up activity and downstream production and marketing activities.     

Gay-riatrics: spatial politics and activism of gay seniors in Tel-Aviv’s gay community centre

This paper discusses aspects of spatial politics and activism at the municipal Gay Community Centre in Tel Aviv. It focuses on one marginal group within the LGBT community that is active in the centre – gay seniors. Drawing on theories of queer geography, queer gerontology and geographies of activism and social movements, the qualitative research reported here uses in-depth interviews and participant observations to demonstrate how these men construct the space for their activity both inside and outside the centre. On the one hand, this spatial politics shifts along a delicate axis between proximity to the municipality and community hegemony, looking ‘inside’ the community on the one hand. On the other, it subverts and challenges the existing communal order, looking ‘outside’ to the surrounding society. However, these two directions are not necessarily binary; rather, as the paper shows, they stand in a dialectic that holds them in tension. This tension is evident in the ways in which the group operates from within the core of the hegemony, creating a complex non-dichotomous reality that enables politics that acts within – and despite – the mainstream.     

The Costs of Exclusion: Gender Job Segregation,Structural Change and the Labour Share of Income

While women's share of employment has risen in many countries over the last two decades, gender job segregation has worsened, with women increasingly excluded from ‘good’ jobs in the industrial sector. In this article, the determinants of gender job segregation are assessed using panel data for a broad set of developing countries covering the period 1991–2015. The effect of gender job segregation on all workers, via the labour share of income, is also analysed. The results identify two major contributors to gender job segregation — the rising capital/labour ratio and the ratio of female/male labour force participation rates — indicative of ‘crowding’ and exclusion as economies move up the industrial ladder. The analysis further indicates that the crowding of women into lower quality jobs has a negative effect on workers as a whole by dampening the labour share of income. Those processes are influenced by global and macroeconomic conditions and policies that have circumscribed the expansion of high‐quality jobs relative to labour supply, intensifying competition for ‘good’ jobs and weakening labour's bargaining power.