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■ ERAN RAZIN DeconcentrationintheTelAviv MetropolitanArea G O V E R N A N C E , M A R K E T S , A N D T H E Q U E S T F O R S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y Israel is one of the densest countries in the world. It is a small developed country characterized by population growth rates that resemble those of some developing countries, due to a high natural increase of its Arab and ultrareligious Jewish population and to substantial in-migration. Population density according to official statistics reached about 803 persons per square mile (310.2 persons per square kilometer) in 2006, up from 279 persons per square mile (107.6 persons per square kilometer) in 1961 and 112 persons per square mile (43.1 persons per square kilometer) at the end of 1948.1 Apart from tiny city states and island states, only a handful of countries are denser than Israel. Moreover, the Palestinian Territories, deeply intertwined with the Israeli settlement and environmental systems, are even denser than Israel. The southern half of Israel is a sparsely populated desert, thus densities in the populated parts of the country are even higher than what average figures indicate. In 2006 over 80 percent of Israel’s population of 6.85 million resided in Israel’s four metropolitan areas: Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, and Beer Sheva (fig. 1).2 Given Israel’s small size and the fact that the Tel Aviv metropolis is approaching the fringe areas of the Jerusalem and Haifa metropolitan areas, a two-tier metropolitan system seems to be emerging. Most of central Israel and much of its north gradually have evolved to be a continuous metropolitan region—although not characterized by a continuous built-up area—with Tel Aviv as a primary node, Jerusalem and Haifa as secondary nodes, and Beer Sheva as a peripheral node. Environmental sustainability concerns associated with metropolitan expansion have frequently been obscured by the never-ending tensions of the Israeli-Arab conflict. The Society for the Protection of Nature—Israel’s first environmental nongovernmental organization (NGO), established in 1953—initially engaged mainly in the protection of Israel’s natural assets, such as flora, fauna, and water sources, and in the formation of nature reserves. This measure took place in 150 ■ ERAN RAZIN Figure 1. Israel’s four metropolitan areas. an era dominated by Zionist ideals of building a new Jewish state, settling a sparsely populated country, establishing new Jewish settlements, “making the desert bloom,” and, in the words of poet Nathan Alterman: “we will dress you (the Land of Israel) in garb of concrete and cement.”3 However, growing environmental awareness and accumulating pressures of population growth and urban development have produced an influential public agenda of sustainability, particularly since the 1990s. The Environmental Protection Service, established in 1973 within the Ministry of Interior, was the first central state action for the creation of a comprehensive environmental administration, active since its inception also in land use planning. In 1988 it became the independent Ministry of the Environment (Ministry of Environmental Protection since 2006). Environmental NGOs have also proliferated in the 1990s, becoming extensively engaged in land use planning procedures, utilizing judicial activism to oppose state supported development plans, and promoting long-term policy changes through legal action that led to precedent-setting court rulings . A significant milestone has been the establishment of Israel Union for Environmental Defense (Adam, Teva VaDin), specializing in legal environmental battles. Nearly one hundred NGOs have become affiliated with DECONCENTRATION IN THE TEL AVIV METROPOLITAN AREA ■ 151 Life and Environment—an organization active since 1974 that expanded in the late 1990s as an umbrella organization for NGOs that deal with public health, sustainable development, and public participation in planning. These NGOs have covered a broad range of national and local issues, including urban agendas such as promoting bicycle lanes, urban conservation, and principles of new urbanism. Local governments have also increasingly engaged in environmental agendas, some in the framework of joint municipal unions for the environment, established since the 1970s. Regional councils, practically controlling most open space in metropolitan fringe areas, have become engaged in the early 2000s in the preparation of master plans for sustainable development.4 Conservation of open space through curbing suburban sprawl and promoting compact forms of urban development has become a foremost aspect in the environmental policy agenda, largely replacing the outdated focus on the preservation...

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