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Competing Land Uses: The Territorial Dimension of Civil–Military Relations in Israel

‘Security comes before everything else’ has been a slogan which has accompanied the State of Israel throughout its history. Security considerations are the number one national priority in Israel and their influence is felt in almost every walk of life. Research projects have analyzed the problematic military–civilian relationship in a number of areas, but have not dealt with the way in which this national priority has influenced the formation of the human and civilian geographical landscapes. This paper examines the way in which regional and local planning have been influenced by the security discourse and the role of security considerations in the decision-making process concerning land use, zoning and physical planning. The problem is even more acute in Israel than other countries because of the small territorial size of the country, the rapidly growing population and the resultant competition for scarce land resources. There is virtually no region inside Israel where competition between military and civilian land uses and priorities does not take place. Military and civilian land uses are intertwined with each other, creating a complex mosaic which often causes conflicts and tensions. The debate concerning military–civil relations has become increasingly multi-disciplinary in recent years. Political scientists, sociologists, economists and anthropologists have become involved in an everwidening, and increasingly critical, debate over the role of the military authorities and defence establishments in western democracies in general and in Israel in particular. Noticeable for its absence, however, has been a discussion of the geographical and territorial dimensions of the civil– military interface. This is all the more surprising given the fact that the defence and military establishment is one of the major consumers of land, with army camps, training grounds, weapons stores and personnel accommodation requiring relatively large tracts of land. Land zoning for