The Kibbutz and " Development Towns " in Israel: Zionist utopias: Ideals ensnared in a tormented history
Résumé
This article first retraces the development of the kibbutz utopia through its 100 years of history prior to examining another utopia that has arisen out of Zionism: The " development town. " Simultaneously a revolutionary movement and a network of rural communities, a town planning alternative distinct from both the city and village, and an avant-garde of Zionist nation-building, the kibbutz later appeared to be part of the affluent elites of Israeli society. So, the kibbutz is light-years away from the underprivileged social strata of the " development towns " , even while in geographic proximity to them. The kibbutz utopia, caught in a stranglehold between social and national ideology, between egalitarianism and productivism, has come up against the political contingencies and contradictory evolutions of Israeli society. Plunged into an unprecedented crisis during the 1990s, the kibbutz has since been undergoing a process of complete, multiform mutations. Unlike the kibbutz, which was born of pioneers' desire, the " development town " is the product of coercive planning doomed almost inevitably to social failure. Founded in the 1950s, these cities without a true economic or social horizon, functioned like " warehouses " for immigrants, primarily of Middle Eastern origin. Israel's evolution since has widened the gap between the centre and the periphery even further, to the detriment of these localities.
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