**2. The context: Israeli geographical peripheries**

The local leaders under discussion in this article were, and some still are, leading Israeli medium-sized towns located in the peripheries of the State of Israel, categorized as having a low socio-economic status.<sup>2</sup> In broad terms, historically, these towns were labeled 'development towns' (Heb., *arei pitu'ah*). Shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Israeli government and national planning authorities prepared to accommodate the large influx of Jewish immigrants, many from Arab states. To this end, during the 1950s and early 1960s, the Israeli authorities founded and built about 35 'new towns' in the frontier areas of the new state. These included the following towns (some of which later became large cities): Ashdod, Be'er-Sheva (Beersheba), Beit-She'an, Kiryat-Shemona, Lod (Lyda), Migdal ha-Emek, Netivot, Ofakim, Ramle, Yavne, and Yeruham.3 In most cases, these new towns were located at a distance from the big metropolitan areas of Israel (Jerusalem and Tel Aviv). As such, they were disadvantaged and suffered from the significantly poor conditions that were typical of peripheral areas, such as: an employment base that rested on traditional and low-tech industries (e.g., food, textiles and mining industries); a high rate of unemployment; low income levels; high levels of socioeconomic instability; low quality public services; and a narrow tax base. In addition, for many years, these towns also suffered from a selective and negative pattern of emigration (the better-educated young people would leave to find work in larger and more affluent urban areas), a phenomenon commonly known as 'brain drain', that further reduced the socio-economic potential of those towns.

activity, representing an entrepreneurial style of leadership. Second section analyses the relationship between the social and geographical conditions in Yeruham and the leadership qualities exercised by the mayors who served this town from 1983 to 2005. This includes a more detailed discussion of an egalitarian leadership style, as expressed by the personality and strategies of Mayor Moti Avisror, comparing it to other types of leadership, mainly hierarchical and meritocratic. The third section analyzes some common local leadership styles among politically-active Israeli-Arab civilians engaged in contemporary Israeli 'mixed cities and towns' (consisting of resident citizens/communities with different ethnic and national identities). This section specifically focuses on Faraj Eben-Faraj, a municipal council member (2012–present), who represents a new model of leadership, one which I call the 'pragmatic reformer'. Here, special attention is paid to the political narrative and to biographical resources, as crucial elements that support the attitudes and abilities of this leader, as well as

Understanding Leadership in Disadvantaged Peripheral Areas: The Case of Mayors and Local…

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76047

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Any city or town has a set of objective attributes—geographical, sociological or political that provide its relative advantage or, to use Michael Porter's term, its 'competitive advantage'. In general, this concept refers to the notion that the "endowments of inputs, such as labor, natural resources and financial capital […] enable the nation [or city] to productively *use* and *upgrade* its input" [16]. In an urban context, such input may be either 'fixed' (e.g., climate, or landscape, or the distance to a big metropolitan area) or 'dynamic', such as changes in state tax-benefit policies, or in commuter habits, or in housing and residential preferences. A crucial point regarding local leadership is that 'competitive advantage' cannot be always regarded as an explicit objective entity, but rather as something that *should be identified* or even invented (i.e., something bound to subjectivity). Successful leaders are those who are better at identify or inventing such advantages and utilizing them wisely on behalf of the city residents. The following discussion demonstrates this guiding principle by reference to Meir

Meir Sheetrit was a young vibrant activist when first elected to be the Mayor of Yavne in 1974—a small Israeli town located at the southern border of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. Yavne was established by Jewish immigrants from Morocco in the mid-1950s. During the 1960s and 1970s, Yavne ranked as one of the poorest municipalities in Israel, suffering from inadequate or lacking infrastructures and services, stigmatized and characterized by a high

A short while after being elected, Sheetrit formulated a vision for Yavne as an attractive place that can provide 'equal opportunity housing' for local and non-local Israelis ready to live in

any other leader.

**3. The local entrepreneurial leader**

Sheetrit, the Mayor of Yavne (1974–1992) ([14], pp. 106–107; [17]).

**3.2. The mayor as an innovator of 'competitive advantage'**

**3.1. Political, geographic and economic contexts**

rate of social-welfare problems.

As for the sociological and ethnic aspects, the vast majority of the people who now live in those towns are the second and third generations of new immigrant parents from Muslim countries; many accustomed to traditional-hierarchical interactions with the broader political environment [14]. Since the early 1990s, in the greater national political arena, Israeli society has undergone a sharp move towards a neo-liberalized and globalized social order [15]—a dynamic that widened the socioeconomic and spatial gaps between rich and poor areas in Israel. In addition, since the beginning of the twenty-first century, Israeli municipalities have come under more scrutiny and have been subjected to tighter regulation by the Israeli Treasury and the Ministry of the Interior, particularly the poorest and lowest ranking municipalities.4

Based on humanistic-interpretational approach mentioned above, the goal of the following analysis is to address the question: How do leaders in those disadvantaged towns cope with and transcend their demeaning conditions? The following analysis and discussion address this question by identifying, conceptualizing, and classifying various types of local leaders using common leadership models.

The empirical analysis consists of three sections. The first section focuses on the personality and strategies of the Mayor of Yavne-Meir Sheetrit (1974–1992), describing his mayoral

<sup>2</sup> According Israeli official statistic, each among all Israeli cities, towns and settlements categorized in one of 10 statistical clusters; each cluster represent a certain level of socioeconomic conditions. Settlements who appears in cluster 1 represent the lowest level of municipalities cluster 10 represent the highest level of urban standards. In the research period, the settlements that under consideration appeared in clusters 3–4.

<sup>3</sup> Up until 1948 Lod and Ramle were homogenous Arab cities. During the Israeli War of Independence (May 1948), these cities were evacuated and a short while later rebuilt as new town. Along the years they become ethno-nationally mix town, see below Section 5.1.

<sup>4</sup> Further, in many case the Israeli ministry of interior affairs intervene in the local municipal affaires of these municipalities, expropriating their powers and limiting local autonomy, as in some case reached to firing mayors replacing them with appointed high officials.

activity, representing an entrepreneurial style of leadership. Second section analyses the relationship between the social and geographical conditions in Yeruham and the leadership qualities exercised by the mayors who served this town from 1983 to 2005. This includes a more detailed discussion of an egalitarian leadership style, as expressed by the personality and strategies of Mayor Moti Avisror, comparing it to other types of leadership, mainly hierarchical and meritocratic. The third section analyzes some common local leadership styles among politically-active Israeli-Arab civilians engaged in contemporary Israeli 'mixed cities and towns' (consisting of resident citizens/communities with different ethnic and national identities). This section specifically focuses on Faraj Eben-Faraj, a municipal council member (2012–present), who represents a new model of leadership, one which I call the 'pragmatic reformer'. Here, special attention is paid to the political narrative and to biographical resources, as crucial elements that support the attitudes and abilities of this leader, as well as any other leader.
