Time of crisis: new planning policies and their impact on inequalities and the environment in Israel
In the last decades, crisis discourse became more dominant, leading to changes in Israeli
planning discourse. The planning system assumes neoliberal features, which changed the
power-relations within planning, enabled a rescaling of planning powers and determined the
adoption of specific urban development patterns. The paper reveals how a governing
coalition, using crisis discourse, promoted policy change that can deepen social inequalities
and environmental unbalance. We focus on Israeli VATMAL law, enacted to ‘solve’ the
housing crisis, through a shortened and centralized procedure that undermined lower
planning levels. We show that the plans processed through VATMAL have serious impacts
on natural areas and future housing. The article concludes that the space, shaped by current
‘housing crisis’ through the VATMAL, is increasing spatial and social inequalities in Israel