Between the Last Plow and Border Committees

Rural communities in Israel have historically been established by and affiliated with different national settling federations, often described together as “the labor settlement.” Yet the concept of a unified “rural space” with common characteristics and interests emerged only in the 1990s. Using qualitative methods of content analysis and semi-structured interviews, this article analyzes the symbolic aspects and meanings of this shift. It suggests that the rural space in Israel has been struggling with a “ruralization” process by which it becomes more similar to other rural spaces in the Global North, while seeking, at the same time, to preserve its unique nature, bolstered by past arrangements and legislation, through the reclaiming and reshaping of symbolic capital from the past.