Introduction

This book illustrates two legal cases involving spatial transgression. The first case is Hakim v. Minister of Interior and the second case is Sheinbein v. Attorney General. These two cases illustrate a dominant contradiction that structures Israeli polity and society and occupy throughout the book. The book is a socio-legal essay on the historical production of political space. Its purpose is to map out and understand the different ways in which the state deals with various social groups through the mechanisms of space. The book uncovers the unifying logic underlying the disparate legal treatment of political space, brought to light in the case studies, and to propose a reform of local government law that attempts to achieve greater social equality through a conscious reorganization of political space. Although Israel is the focus of the book, its theoretical implications reach beyond Israel's territorial boundaries.