Walking the Land

"Shay Rabineau's Walking the Land offers a fascinating history of a largely unstudied topic - the creation of a network of trails in Palestine and Israel since the early 20th century and the development of a thriving recreational culture among natives and visitors. Who would have suspected that trails themselves reveal a slice of a country's history? The author's choice of illuminating maps and evocative photographs will draw the reader right onto the trails."-Jehuda Reinharz, Richard Koret Professor of Modern Jewish History, Brandeis University "In his deeply original Walking the Land, Shay Rabineau takes what seems like a surface-level issue - hiking trails - and explores their profound implications in and on Zionist thought, Israeli society, and Palestinian national aspirations. He does so with the seriousness of a scholar and the sparkle of a great storyteller who has enjoyed an adventure or two himself on these winding paths."-Christa Case Bryant, former Jerusalem bureau chief for The Christian Science Monitor

Shay Rabineau is Assistant Professor of Israel Studies and Associate Director of the Center for Israel Studies at Binghamton University. His research is at the intersection of Middle East history, geography, politics, and environment.

Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration, Translation, and Language Use Introduction: Israeli Hiking Trails and Their Spatial, National, and Existential Dimensions 1. The Construction of a Jewish Hiking Culture in Palestine, 1904-1935 2. The Palmach and the First Marked Hiking Trail, 1935-1948 3. The First Israeli Hiking Trails, 1949-1963 4. The Foundations of the Country-Wide Trail Network, 1963-1979 5. Completing the Network and Creating a National Trail, 1980-2001 6. Postscripts, 2001-2021 Notes Bibliography Index