Abstract
How does the discovery of the mausoleum of Herod the Great in the West Bank relate to Jewish Neo-Zionist territorial claims? What are the connections between agricultural farms and social exclusion? And why is it so difficult for Ka adan, an Arab citizen of Israel, to purchase state owned land outside his own town? In Israel, development schemes often contain a nationalistic overtone, marked by ethnic delineation and religious sentiments. This thesis, a cross-disciplinary sociocultural and historical-geographical study, examines the role that religion, ethnicity and nationality play in the creation of ethnoscapes and ethno-classes . It is argued that the exclusive religious character of Israeli nationality poses a challenge to distributive justice and social sustainability. Focusing on the case of the Arab-Bedouins in the Negev, the relationship between nationality, Demographic design and spatial domination is studied, revealing the interconnectedness of the politics of space, place, myth and identity.