ABSTRACT
Local governments operate within frameworks established by their national governments. The status and autonomy enjoyed by local officials and voters may be more or less. Israel is formally a unitary state, with a great deal of power in the hands of central authorities. National power comes from Knesset enactments that favor the ministries of the central government. Immigration is prominent in Israel's national legend. Built as a homeland and as a refuge from persecution for a dispersed people, Israel would be nothing without immigration. The Ministry of Construction and Housing discussed the option of caravans as an immediate and temporary response to a housing emergency in the first half of 1990. Politics was never far from the issue of housing for new immigrants. Immigrants would vote at some time in the future, and each of the local authorities asked to house them included residents concerned about their potential neighbors.
