The Star Localities label belongs to a housing and regional-development initiative of מדינת ישראל MEDINAT YISRAʾEL in the early 1990s. A contemporary State Comptroller audit describes the Seven Stars plan as a connected system of housing, employment, commerce, services, transport, recreation and infrastructure, along the Green Line, extending from Nahal Iron in the north to the Modi'in area in the south. The name identifies a planning initiative; it does not by itself establish a fixed list of seven completed localities.1
What did the plan seek to accomplish?
The audit records approval by the ministerial committee for immigration matters in November 1990. One of its stated purposes was:
ᴏʀɪɢɪɴᴀʟ:
הקלת העומס על מערכת היישובים באזור החוף והשפלה.2
ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ:
Easing the burden on the system of localities in the coastal region and Shefela.3
A further purpose linked a continuous pattern of habitation with the planned north–south Highway 6. The project joined the provision of homes with decisions about how people, employment and transport would be distributed across ארץ ישראל EREẒ YISRAʾEL.4
Why does the number in the name need care?
The same audit describes eight planned localities and distinguishes Katzir and Harish from southern project sites named Yad Hana, Tzoran, Tzur Yigal, Yarhiv, Mazor and Kfar Ruth. Those are the audit's project names. They should not be silently converted into a roster of present-day municipalities.5
How did implementation differ from a plan?
The audit examines construction through housing associations and building companies. It reports missed contractual deadlines, withdrawals by association members and reductions in some land allocations. Its findings show why approval, marketing, contracting and completed housing must be distinguished when tracing the plan's history.6
This administrative record establishes the program's stated purposes and the implementation problems its auditors examined. Explaining a particular locality's later development requires its own planning and municipal records.
Guided reflections
- Why can a program's name differ from the number of sites described in its records?
- What separates approval of a housing program from construction and habitation?
- How did the plan connect housing with transport and employment?
Footnotes
- State Comptroller, Annual Report 43, Annual Report 43, page 142. ↩
- State Comptroller, Annual Report 43, Page 142, purpose ב; Hebrew checked against the page image. ↩
- State Comptroller, Annual Report 43, Page 142; TJD translation. ↩
- State Comptroller, Annual Report 43, Page 142, purposes א–ג. ↩
- State Comptroller, Annual Report 43, Page 142, planned localities and construction arrangements. ↩
- State Comptroller, Annual Report 43, Pages 142–143, housing associations and implementation. ↩