This study examines the under representation and exclusion of Arabs from planning and planning institutions in Israel. It reviews the internal and external barriers to the Arab population's involvement and to the Arab planners' degree of participation in planning processes. The study highlights the systematic institutional failure to fulfill its obligation to include a representation of Arabs in these institutions and its impact on the relationship between the state and the Arab public.

This volume of papers addresses national, district and metropolitan planning perspectives. Among them are the new generation of national and district planning issues and a return to comprehensive national planning. Some focus on a vision for long-term planning, Tel Aviv's empowerment and internalizing concepts of sustainable development as well as on combining between institutionalized operations and public and academic discourse. Others address dilemmas of metropolitan regeneration, strategies to strengthen Jerusalem and the late Professor Arie Shachar's unique contribution to urban geography, planning and mapping.

This publication focuses on the transformation in municipal planning arena in the last three decades, led by the growth in the number of players taking part in the process and the plethora of activities, interests and values. These changes, in a complex arena such as the city of Jerusalem, impact on the planning process and its output: the protraction of the process and an increasing disparity between planning and its implementation.

This research examines how and why both Israelis and Palestinians cross borders into alien territory, and the way in which each of the groups confronts the "invasion" of its rival into its home territory.

Its main findings show that the more mutually inclusive territorial identity a place has the more positive an interactional pattern will occur in it, and vise-versa.

This study attempts to characterize the impact of scientists on shaping environmental policy in Israel and when, and in what way does the use of scientific rationale lead to maximizing the successful promotion of a desired policy? This is a particularly significant question in Israel, where the issue has not as yet gained wide public acknowledgement.

Urban creativity is currently the focus of theoretical and practical research and can contribute to the understanding of local government modus operandi and in particular to its effective management. The study focuses on Shoham and Holon, both defined by the Ministry of the Interior as successful municipalities. It examines the creativity of the municipality distinguishing between effective management, which emphasizes internal processes within the municipality, and democratic openness, which emphasizes the interaction between the municipality and the environment as well as increasing local capital resources.

This study attempts to evaluate the degree of independence and entrepreneurship among a group of Arab Muslim women, rural and Bedouin, and their own viewpoints on issues relating to independence, entrepreneurship, economic involvement and their social and legal status against a background of a changing global economy.

The municipal water system reform in Israel has long passed the point of no return, both from the perspective of the volume of population and its single-directional legal approach. However, this outcome hardly heralds the reform's conclusion. Completing the municipal corporatization is only one aspect of the reform and does not secure its success by standards of its own initial principles and goals. Analyzing the policy process of corporatization on a national level uncovers fundamental phenomena which may impede, without possibility of redress, the reform's stated goals, the public interest and the interests of consumers. In the face of this disturbing possibility this research attempts to reevaluate the corporatization reform and its possible impacts.

This study examines the deliberations of the Nissim Commission as a window to understanding the trends and the development processes over a given period – 1995-2001. The study focuses on the development processes, their leading protagonists, the central motives guiding them and the development mechanism of agricultural land and open spaces in Israel. The analysis relates to the process itself and not to its outcome and proposes, among others, the prospects of forecasting the development process and expected trends.

This study examines the role of the judiciary in the process of change which has taken place during the last three decades in the legal foundation and function of rural local government in Israel.

This study compares between two regional leaders of the peripheral town of Yeruham over three decades. Its findings show that leaders who operated under similar economic, geographical and cultural conditions, embodied very diverse types of leadership. The comparison manifested various perspectives and channels of influence: the community vision, the socio-political concept, funding strategies and most particularly the style and modus operandi with both the local population and the national concentrations of power. Factors associated with the character and image of the leader impacted directly on local development and on the quality of services as well as on shifts in the political culture of Yeruham's residents.

This study examines the policy concept of addressing poor-performing municipalities in Israel as reflected by the new Municipalities Bill-2007, and compares legislation and experience in this field in other countries, most particularly in Britain. The central dilemma which the study addresses is the paucity of the Municipalities Bill and its questionable ability to accelerate recovery processes in local government under crisis. The Bill reflects the governing perception in the country on addressing poor-performing localities, which is rigid, limited and based on an economic paradigm. This, despite the experience of other western countries, which includes policy, legislation and wide accommodating measures to challenge the under-performance of public organizations.

This study examines the attempt to create a joint management public-private body for the center of Jerusalem, against a background of an ambitious project to regenerate its old center. The study points to the difficulties entailed in the process at the outset, and proposes the means to resolve them based on worldwide experience and recommends an appropriate model for the center of  Jerusalem.

This study focuses on the migration to Jerusalem by young Palestinian-Israeli women from Arab localities in Israel and on their eventual choice to settle in the city rather than return to their native localities. The study examines the considerations that determine their initial decision to migrate to Jerusalem, usually for the purpose of studies or employment. The characteristics of these young women are examined, as are those unique characteristics of Jerusalem as a migration-absorbing city. Their choice to reside in neighborhoods within Jerusalem and shifts in their socio-economic status resulting from the move are also explored.

The idea to position Jerusalem as a center of educational services in the global economy is the main thrust of this policy paper. It is founded on the city’s own past achievement in higher education and on its future potential. Educational services around the world have increasingly become more “globalized” and students move across boundaries and often great distances in order to get the right kind of service in terms of quality and price.

With increased globalization the English language has assumed become the main language of instruction. Its predominant role in exporting educational services has spurred universities to offer teaching services in English to overseas students and thus avail them of this growing global market. In order to realize its potential for exporting higher educational services Jerusalem must do the same.

In recent years personal liability in local government has become a major issue in central-local government relations as well as in the public discourse. Its main thrust is a focus on ingraining norms of good governance in the public sector in general and in local government in particular. This publication serves as a foundation for an academic discussion on the issue.

This study examines the distribution of the local property tax (Arnona) burden in Israel by analyzing the household expenditure surveys for the years 1997-2005. A new analytical approach reveals the advantages and flaws of the current taxation system in order to propose improving measures of the existing mechanism.

This study examines the perspectives of decision-makers in the city of Ashdod concerning public participation in cultural issues, against the background of various active models of participatory democracy in Israel and overseas. Activating a model of participatory democracy significantly enhances the involvement of citizens in the democratic process, to their own advantage. It is important to create a mechanism that will enable citizens to realize their needs and desires by applying their capacity to influence or take part in decision-making processes.

The choice of Ashdod, the fifth largest city in Israel, is not arbitrary in light of the numerous waves of migration which form its residential fabric and generate contrasting cultural needs.

This essay presents a vision of a strengthened Jerusalem that can hopefully endure any geopolitical scenario.  In order to achieve this goal several strategic steps are essential, all  to be accompanied by a growing involvement of the central government of Israel in the affairs of the city and its surrounding region, so as to not only allocate generously resources to support housing, employment and infrastructure but also generate planning tools that enable urban development. All the strategies suggested in this essay share the notion of connectedness.

This study examines the customs and social accommodations governing Arab society on issues of land management, among them: identifying boundaries, parceling land, land uses and land holding. All these developed in a rural society in which land passed on from one generation to the next. The development of land legislation in Israel and its impacts on land management under conditions of urbanization are also examined. The differences between the two systems (customs versus regulations) from social, economic, cultural and political aspects and considers their planning implications on land uses and spatial development.