Mega Projects

Analyzing two central mega-engineering projects in Israel — the Huleh drainage in the 1950s and the Trans-Israel Highway in the 2000s — led the authors to conclude these large-scale projects reflect deep structural changes in Israeli society during the two periods under review.

The analysis focuses on five domains: national ideology, the public discourse and the process of decision making, attitude toward nature and environment, and social justice. A strong synergy was found between the culture and the politics of Israeli society at each of the two researched periods and the nature of the initiated mega-project.