ABSTRACT
The map of Israel is a mosaic of different settlements, each having a distinct ethnic or cultural identity. This chapter explores the unifying logic behind the place of space in legal analysis by situating it within a broader political, historical and sociological context. It stresses the important role played by Zionist ideology and the ethnocratic regime it engendered in the production of the Israeli politico-spatial map and its legal manifestation—the territorial jurisdiction. The chapter explores the way received ideas about space and places within the Zionist ideological paradigm have shaped, and continue to shape, legal common sense which reproduces and reinforces such spatial notions. It discusses the social production of political space, and presents the foundations for understanding the mechanisms through which Israeli political spaces are produced. The chapter analyses the pros and cons of geographical integration/separation, the only two options currently available in both public policy and the popular imagination.
