The Land Is Full

The Land Is Full
Author: Alon Tal
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2016-08-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0300224958

During the past sixty-eight years, Israel’s population has increased from one to eight million people. Such exponential growth has produced acute environmental and social crises in this tiny country. Alon Tal, one of Israel’s foremost environmentalists, considers the ramifications of the extraordinary demographic shift, from burgeoning pollution and dwindling natural resources to overburdened infrastructure and overcrowding. Based on extensive fieldwork and interviews, the book examines the origins of Israel’s population policies and how they must change to support a sustainable future.

Israel's Palestinians

Israel's Palestinians
Author: Ilan Peleg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2011-06-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521766834

Arguing that a comprehensive and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict depends on a resolution of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict within Israel as much as it does on resolving the conflict between Israel and Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, this timely book explores the causes and consequences of the growing conflict between Israel's Jewish majority and its Palestinian-Arab minority. It warns that if Jewish-Arab relations in Israel continue to deteriorate, this will pose a serious threat to the stability of Israel, to the quality of Israeli democracy, and to the potential for peace in the Middle East. The book examines the views and attitudes of both the Palestinian minority and the Jewish majority, as well as the Israeli state's historic approach to its Arab citizens. Drawing upon the experience of other states with national minorities, the authors put forward specific proposals for safeguarding and enhancing the rights of the Palestinian minority while maintaining the country's Jewish identity.

Israel

Israel
Author: International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 74
Release: 2017-03-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1475589263

Israel is enjoying strong economic growth, estimated at 4 percent in 2016, supported by strong domestic demand—partly due to high vehicle sales ahead of a tax increase—and an export rebound. Unemployment declined to 4.4 percent in Q4 2016 and wage increases have picked up. Nonetheless, inflation remained below the 1–3 percent target range of the Bank of Israel (BOI), reflecting external factors and government measures to reduce the cost of living. The BOI has held the policy rate at 0.1 percent since February 2015 and stated that monetary policy in Israel will remain accommodative for a considerable time. Strong revenues contained the fiscal deficit to 2.1 percent of GDP in 2016 and the public debt ratio declined to 62 percent of GDP.

God's People in God's Land

God's People in God's Land
Author: Christopher J. H. Wright
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 312
Release: 1990
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780802803214

In recent sociological approaches to the Old Testament, Christians have been finding unexpected resources for their ethical reflection and action relative to the modern world's pressing social and economic dilemmas. This unique survey by Christopher Wright examines life in Old Testament Israel from an ethical perspective by considering how the economic facts of Israel's social structure were related to the people's religious beliefs. Observing the centrality of the family in social, economic and religious spheres of Israelite life, Wright analyzes Israel's theology of land, the rights and responsibilities of property owners, and the socioeconomic and legal status of dependent persons in ancient Israel - wives, children, and slaves - showing the mutual interaction between such laws, institutions, and customs and the nation's covenant relationship with God. While primarily exegetical, God's People in God's Land contains many useful insights for Christian social ethics: Wright suggests how the ethical application of his findings might proceed as Christians with different theological perspectives and cultural contexts seek to work out the relevance of the Old Testament for today.

Challenging Post-conflict Environments

Challenging Post-conflict Environments
Author: Alpaslan Özerdem
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2016-04-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317168720

Crossing disciplinary boundaries, this volume by Özerdem and Roberts conceptualizes the challenges of developing sustainable agriculture in post-conflict environments as well as identifying the policies and practical solutions to achieve sustainable agricultural production which is central to the survival of humanity. Without sustainable agriculture, populations remain vulnerable increasing the likelihood of a return to conflict. Therefore, sustainable agriculture is central to effective post-conflict recovery that provides human security as well as stability and rule of law. Unique in combining a comprehensive and comparative understanding of sustainable agriculture challenges in post-conflict environments, there is originality in the interdisciplinary nature of the book. Interdisciplinary often means bringing together a political scientist and a sociologist, but in this case it means bringing together natural and social scientists, as well as those with practical experience in development and agricultural contexts. By adopting a holistic multi-disciplinary approach which identifies key themes and case studies, this book sets the scene for the debate surrounding sustainable agriculture in post-conflict environments. Seeing 'fixing' agriculture as more than merely a technical matter, the volume focuses on this critical post-conflict challenge with social, political and cultural characteristics and consequences as well as the obvious economic ones.