| Summary/Abstract |
The article focuses on the early stages of the colonization of the Israeli Negev during the 1950s. It reconstructs the early stages of the settlement of Yeruham from the perspective of one local administrator, Shlomo Tamir, who managed the settlement for a one-year period, 1952–1953. Conceptualizing Tamir’s role as that of a mediator, it draws attention to the forming political structure of patronage and clientelism on the local level and the concomitant changes in the ‘big-man’ networks of pre-state elite networks as they expanded into Israel’s southern frontier. A micro historical analysis focused on Tamir’s deputies furnishes a discussion on the social make-up of the Israeli frontier, comprising of a typical frontier mixture of fortune seekers, opportunity hunters, semi-indentured laborers and upwardly mobile colonists.
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