In the land of the patriarchs : design and contestation in West Bank settlements An account of the design of West Bank settlements from 1967 when housing settlements were still an abstract idea to the present when they have become hotly contested. It addresses the complicated relationship between politics and the built environment and questions assumptions about politics and the built environment. The author looks closely at five settlements Hebron Ofra Nofim Beitar Illit and Pnei Kedem to analyze the settlement movement the country Israel has become since 1967 and more broadly the production of space in sites of political conflict. For Shoked the role of contingency is key: government policy shaped the design of settlements but so too did other actors. As Shoked writes the analytic categories of expert and user above and below frequently dissolve in the unfolding process of design construction and inhabitation.