Abstract

In the 1950s the young state of Israel (founded in 1948) adopted a “melting pot” policy, entailing the transformation of immigrants from North Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe into “new Israelis”. Architectural planning and design were recruited to create the appropriate environment, an aim that the profession adopted in both discourse and practice. The documentary film industry too was recruited to support the same agenda: at the time, newsreels served the government as an instrument of propaganda. They documented events in the life of the young state, including the process of building the new-towns and shaping the individual and the new society. The research reviews, analyzes, and compares the architectural discourse and the propaganda films concerning Israeli new-towns. It focusses on the shaping of the modern Israeli individual and society, comparing the promotion of ideologies and the shaping of Israeli identity in propaganda films and in the architectural professional discourse. Review, analysis, and comparison of the architectural discourse and the propaganda films concerning Israeli new-towns: the shaping of the modern Israeli individual and society, promotion of ideologies and the shaping of Israeli identity.