PLANNING A NATION: THE JEWISH LAND FROM THE SHARON PLAN TO ISRAEL 2020

Abstract

Soon after the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, proclaimed on 14
May 1948, the new Jewish State developed a planning process in the scale of the overall
national land. Modernist theories in architecture and urban planning have been conformed
to this pluralistic and multi-ethnic geographic area, lacking of water resources and
infrastructures. Arieh Sharon, who graduated from the Bauhaus in Dessau, was called by
the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel and Head of Jewish Agency for Palestine,
David Ben Gurion, to coordinate a national plan, in order to encourage social and economic
progress and to support imminent waves of Jewish immigrants. After the sixties, the Sharon
plan started to be unable to support the changes that characterized the Israeli society and
territory and, during the last five decades, new orientation has conditioned the new
planning doctrine. This article focuses on the nature of Sharonʼs plan and its legacy and
differences with the current management of Israeli territory.
Keywords: Israel, planning doctrine, Arieh Sharon