The Changing Story Of "Hityashvut" - Settlement In The Land Of Israel

By Steve Israel

The idea of Jewish settlement (hityashvut) in the Land of Israel is one of the most fundamental concepts in the whole of the Jewish story as it has unfolded over thousands of years. We date the beginning of that story from the biblical episode in which God gives the divine demand to Abram, to leave his native land and to go to "the Land which I shall show you," a land soon identified with the Land of Israel. Thus the connection with the Land actually precedes all other theological and practical concepts which become part of Judaism and the Jewish story over time.

The Jewish story develops over thousands of years around the axis of the Land. For long periods it is a physical centre for the Jews, at other times it is more of an emotional and spiritual centre, but Jewish existence throughout the world at all times has been defined largely by the relationship with the Land. You are either inside the Land or outside the Land (in Galut or the Diaspora), but the physical community was always defined both physically and ideologically, by relation to the Land of Israel...
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Zionism and Hityashvut 

The Socialist Pioneers
 
Continuous Expansion

 The Early State - '48 to '67

The Aftermath to '67

Hityashvut, Yesterday's Term for Today's Reality?

Summing Up

 Bibliography

Related Pages

Places in Israel

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