Field Notes: Golan and Galil
31 March through 2 April 1991
Daniel J. Elazar
The primary purpose of this investigation is to look at mitzpim
and yishuvim kehillatiim in the Galil and Golan, especially
insofar as they represent the fourth frontier stage of rurban
settlement based on what in Israel should not be called citybelts
but community belts. Working as my assistants were Avi and Nomi
Guter. I personally examined traditional kibbutzim and moshavim
on the Golan; Katzrin (the city developed by Israel on the
Golan); Karkom, a yishuv kehilati at the south end of the etzba
haGalil overlooking the Jordan River just above its confluence
with Lake Kinneret where it has a spectacular view of both the
entire Kinneret on the south and Mount Hermon on the north;
Carmiel in the central Galilee at the dividing point between the
lower and upper Galil; and several mitzpim southwest of Carmiel
including Yuvalim, Shorashim, Rakefet, and Misgav, the seat of
the Moetza Azorit and its principal common institutions. The
Guters looked at Karkom and the mitzpim as well as other mitzpim
in the vicinity, principally Eshav.
Altogether we looked at seven mitzpim of various kinds, two new
towns, and several kibbutzim and moshavim as well as the more
established kibbutzim of the Upper Galilee, Kiryat Shmona,
Metula, Rosh Pina and Hatzor. What we noticed in every case was
the development of the Galilee as a rurban frontier based upon
relatively small groups of people from 25 to 200 families
settling in a natural setting, usually on the top of a hill in a
suburban-style settlement, gives them nice housing in the form of
private free-standing homes, while they travel to work in nearby
industries at cities and enterprises. These mitzpim and yishuvim
kehilatiim are blossoming in all sizes and shapes, designed for
different strata of people from upper professionals to the
children of the moshavim in the area who are not the heirs of
their family's moshav holding or who do not work in agriculture
but who want to stay in the area.
For example, the first 25 families who have moved into Karkom are
mostly from the moshavim in the area including at least one
teacher who grew up in the neighboring moshav Elifelet. Karkom
is making a major effort to establish itself as a substantial
yishuv kehilati. It is the designated site of a group called
Hazon HaGalil (the Vision of the Galilee), organized in the
Miami, Florida area, consisting of young American Jewish couples
plus Israelis who have been in the United States for some years
who plan to come back and settle there and build homes on very
good terms, whereby they will receive housing plots for free and
will be able to build four-level homes from different standard
models for NS 100,000 a piece. They intend to build a joint
enterprise in the form of a hotel servicing the handicapped and
their families on the banks of Lake Kinneret just below the
yishuv kehilati. It will be a resort hotel equipped with
facilities for various kinds of handicapped to enable them to
vacation with their families, provide activities that they and
their families can engage in together.
Karkom will form a link in the chain of settlements from Tiberias
to Metula running in two parallel strips, one along the
Tiberias-Metula highway and the other along the Jordan River
about 5-10 km. from the highway. This will be a linear
settlement belt anchored on the south end by Tiberias or maybe
extending even further southward and on its northern end by
Metula, punctuated by Rosh Pina, Hazor, and Kiryat Shmona in the
middle. No point will be more than half an hour away from any
city in the line. Every variety of community from traditional
city, kibbutzim and moshavim, moshavot, yishuvim kehilatiim, and
new town is available in this belt.
A similar belt may develop along the edge of the Golan Heights
from just above Tel Katzir at the southern end of the Heights to
Katzrin, a little beyond the middle. These are more traditional
kibbutzim and moshavim plus the city of Katzrin and they are a
little far away from the center of things to form a full
community belt, but there is already a chain in process.
A very different kind of rurban belt is forming in the western
lower Galilee. There, in the traditional Galilee fashion,
settlement is circular (Galil means circle or wheel).
Settlements on just about every hilltop, with Carmiel as the
northeastern anchor and increasing at the center of the region,
Ir Haveradim on the northwest, and the Haifa Bay cities (Akko and
the Krayot) on the southwest. There, in addition to the suburban
or exurban-like mitzpim themselves, major industries are being
built in the countryside. Tefen and Rafael (Israel's military
industry) are two good examples of major rurally-cited industries
which draw employees from the mitzpim around or from Carmiel.
While not nearly as selective as the cooperative and collective
settlements, each mitzpe also tends to attract a certain type of
people as any neighborhood would. Eshav is mixed -- religious,
traditional, and non-religious. Shorashim is committed to the
Masorti movement. Different levels of housing at different
prices are available in different mitzpim or in the larger
yishuvim kehilatiim and the different neighborhoods within them.
One of the early problems of the mitzpim, that is to say,
building houses without building infrastructure, seems to be in
the process of being remedied. The government now is more likely
to build infrastructure, roads, electricity, water, etc. along
with the first houses. This has to be investigated more closely.
