Shimon Adaf and the peripheral novel

[...]the overall planning of the development towns was only partially implemented and although population planning was successful, the economic infrastructure was never put into place. [...]the small older communities adjacent to the development towns refused to collaborate. [...]the dispersal of the population that should have resulted in integration led to its diametric opposite: immigrants found themselves stranded in outlying regions, without resources, with high unemployment rates, and few if any municipal services. The school system was less than perfect and the development towns failed to overcome their economic distress.1 The canonical Hebrew literature that revolved in the twentieth century around the creation of the “New Jew” and the Sabra image of the native Israeli—who was usually of Ashkenazi origin—chose to locate its protagonists in utopian spaces such as the kibbutz, the moshav, and Jewish cities.2 Israeli spaces such as transit camps, downtrodden neighborhoods, and development towns were rarely mentioned. [...]contrary to Shimoni’s claim, Adaf’s protagonists are capable of putting the southern development town behind them and “making it” in the big city without turning to crime or religion.