Leifer, Amanda: Kibbutzim and Moshavim, Exploring Communities and their Relationships with the Agricultural Landscape in Israel and the West Bank

Title: Kibbutzim and Moshavim, Exploring Communities and their Relationships with the Agricultural Landscape in Israel and the West Bank

Name: Amanda Leifer

Major: Landscape Architecture

School affiliation: School of Environmental and Biological Sciences

Programs: George H. Cook Scholars Program

Other contributors: Holly Nelson, Anette Freytag

Abstract: This paper addresses the different types of agriculturally based communities that Jewish immigrants and pioneers have founded in Ottoman Palestine, British Palestine, Israel, and the West Bank. Of the many different types of communities that exist, two will be the focus of this paper: Kibbutzim and Moshavim. Since their inception in the late 19th century, settlement communities in the land have been inextricably linked to agriculture as a means of survival and livelihood. Agriculture influenced the rise of these communities and contributed to the evolution of agricultural practices and history in Israel and the West Bank. This paper will also demonstrate how these communities interact with a landscape of conflict. Because they are all located in the same geographic area, the settlements can be compared and analyzed. This paper will primarily address how people connect to land through agriculture and through agricultural development.