In Research

TAUTRENDS
In Research 2006
New Findings in Jewish Neo-Aramaic
Aramaic, the language of the Babylonian
Talmud and other important sacred texts,
has a distinguished history of some 3000
years, and was once the lingua franca of
the Ancient Near East. Less recognized is
the fact that Aramaic has, quite
remarkably, survived into modern times.
Neo-Aramaic, a blanket term for an
immense variety of fascinating Aramaic
vernaculars, is still spoken in several small
enclaves today. These enclaves form an
arc: from southern Syria to southeastern
Turkey, to northern Iraq and northwestern
Iran, and then down to the southern
Iranian province of Khuzestan. Scholarly
knowledge of these dialects is far from
complete, and some regions remain terra
incognita, awaiting linguistic exploration.
Modern Aramaic vernaculars are spoken
by a diverse variety of cultural
communities: Christians of various
denominations, Jews, Sunni Muslims and
Mandaeans (adherents of a gnostic
religion). These vernaculars are among
the most seriously endangered languages
of the world, doomed to be supplanted
by various other tongues. Many native
speakers have fled their homes to escape
oppression and political upheavals; and
most – particularly the young – are
gradually adopting the languages of their
new homes. Similarly, Jewish NeoAramaic (JNA) dialects have been
increasingly eroded by Hebrew since the
immigration of Aramaic-speaking Jewry
to Israel, primarily in the 1950s. Not
passed on to younger generations, some
JNA dialects are already on the brink of
extinction, while others are not expected
to linger on for more than two decades.
Today JNA is still actively spoken by two
ancient Jewish communities: the Jews of
Kurdistan and the Nash Didan (“Our
People”), who hail from Iranian Azerbaijan
Jewish epic poem in Hebrew and Neo-Aramic
(northwestern Iran) and adjacent areas
across the Turkish border. Probably less
than 20,000 native JNA speakers are alive
today; and most were born in Kurdistan.
Dr. Hezy Mutzafi of the TAU Department
of Hebrew Culture Studies has been
documenting the diverse group of JNA
dialects. He has already discovered several
previously unknown dialects and tracked
down speakers of several nearly extinct –
and hardly explored – ones. One
noteworthy example is Dr. Mutzafi's
discovery and description of Barzani JNA,
a unique Aramaic language comprising
three dialects, now spoken only by a
handful of elderly Jews from the area of
Barzan in Iraqi Kurdistan. His description
of the JNA dialect of the Jewish village of
Betanure in Iraq (near the Turkish border)
is based on the last two proficient
speakers. He has also located the last few
speakers of the JNA dialect of Salmas in
Iranian Azerbaijan, which was reported
to be nearly extinct in 1965. Such linguistic
detective work contributes greatly to our
very partial knowledge of the grammatical
and lexical profiles of the wide spectrum
of JNA dialects.
Dr. Mutzafi’s pioneering research is mostly
based on his own recordings of JNA
speakers, and to some extent on recently
discovered manuscripts. Some of these
manuscripts date back to the 18th century
and include religious literary works,
including original poetry on biblical
themes. The first page of an epic poem
about David and Goliath, written partly
in Hebrew and partly in JNA, is shown in
the accompanying photograph.
Apart from salvaging linguistic data, Dr.
Mutzafi’s publications reveal new details
concerning the traditions, folklore,
demography and vicissitudes of colorful,
far-flung and barely known Jewish
communities in Kurdistan and Iranian
Azerbaijan. These details are likely to be
of much interest to researchers and
students of various aspects of traditional
Jewish communal life in the Middle East.
TAU TRENDS
Stem Cells: New Hope for
Neurodegenerative Diseases
The development of a mature
Unraveling the basis of normal
time scale of development. Several
multicellular organism from a single stem
development is thus an important key to
studies have shown that mammalian cells
cell is one of the most fascinating
disentangling the molecular elements
and tissues transplanted into chick
phenomena in biology. It proceeds in a
and malfunctions responsible for
embryos can respond to local signals and
remarkably organized and reproducible
numerous heritable and non-heritable
develop into tissues appropriate to their
fashion in all individuals and across
human diseases, most notably cancer.
new location. Therefore, chick embryos
generations of the same species.
Recently, developmental biology has
could provide all the necessary
Developmental biology studies the
become a matter of great public interest,
conditions for human stem cells to
multiple synchronized events and
due to the successful cultivation of
differentiate into the multiple types of
interactions between growth,
human embryonic stem-cell lines and
nerve cells (neurons).
morphogenesis and differentiation that
reports that adult stem cells can
Based on their expertise in manipulating
form viable offspring. This four-
differentiate into developmentally
the chick embryo – focused on the
process of neural tube formation – the
TAU researchers have established a novel
experimental approach capable of
bridging the gap between cell and
developmental biology by identifying
factors at the cellular level that may affect
neural tube formation in vivo. They have
already successfully transplanted human
Figure 1: Live visualization of typical human embryonic stem cells (hESC) expressing Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) implanted in the
developing neural tube of two-day-old chick embryos (indicated by arrows): (A) after implantation, (B) two days later, (C) three days
after implantation. Implantation does not affect normal embryogenesis.
embryonic and adult mesenchymal stem
cells into the developing neural tube of
chick embryos with promising results
(see figures 1 and 2). The implanted cells
unrelated cell types (e.g., nerve cells
transforming into blood cells). Both
intrinsic and extrinsic signals regulate
stem-cell fate and some of these signals
have now been identified. Certain aspects
of the stem-cell microenvironment
differentiated into human neurons within
a few days and apparently integrated
themselves into the host nervous system.
Such results indicate that this approach
could serve as unique platform for neurophysiological studies on human neurons
(niche) are conserved between tissues,
in vivo.
and this can be exploited in the
These innovative TAU experiments
application of stem cells to tissue-
provide new avenues for studying human
replacement therapy.
neurodegenerative diseases; and the
The laboratory of Dr. Miguel Weil at the
researchers are now employing this
TAU Department of Cell Research and
experimental platform to study Familial
Immunology studies the development of
Dysautonomia (FD) and other human
dimensional process involves an
the vertebrate nervous system using the
neurodegenerative diseases such as
orchestra of extracellular molecular
chick embryo as an experimental model.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) using
signals that trigger intracellular pathways
The chick embryo is a well-characterized,
neurons derived from stem cells obtained
to drive a series of highly regulated cell
accessible experimental system for
from FD and ALS patients. This approach
divisions and programmed cell deaths.
studying inductive interactions and
should eventually facilitate drug testing
These eventually determine the place,
differentiation during development; its
and quality-control screening of stem
shape, size and symmetry of the tissues
advantages include a high resemblance
cell-derived neurons for the treatment of
and organs forming the living embryo.
to human embryogenesis and a short
patients with neurodegenerative diseases.
Figure 2: Confocal analysis of implanted human GFP-ES cells in
the chick neural tube. All cell nuclei are stained red.
(A) Position of hESC-GFP cells (in green) one day after implantation.
Dead apoptotic cells are indicated by arrows; viable cells remain
in green clusters. (B) Five days after implantation, migrating GFPcells (arrows) show a different morphology. (C-D) Higher
magnification shows that several migrating cells have neuronlike morphology and extensions resembling dendrites or axons.
TAU TRENDS
Targeting Tumor Vasculature
Schematic representation of angiogenesis. Polymer therapeutics of angiogenesis inhibitors could target each of the steps shown, by
accumulating in the tumor and slowly endocytosing into the tumor endothelial cells, where they would release the active drug to halt
blood-vessel proliferation. (Figure from R. Satchi-Fainaro, et al. in Advances in Polymer Science, 193. Springer-Verlag: Heidelberg,
2006, reproduced with permission).
To grow, tumors create large number of
new blood vessels to pipe in the large
amounts of nutrients and oxygen needed
to power such rapid proliferation. This
process is called angiogenesis; and,
theoretically, angiogenesis inhibitors
should be able to slow or halt cancer’s
spread. This therapeutic approach, first
proposed by Dr. Judah Folkman in 1971,
has been validated recently by Avastin, a
clinically approved monoclonal antibody
to vascular endothelial growth factor
(VEGF). However, the ability to deliver
such drugs safely to specific target-sites,
such as the tumor vascular endothelium,
remains a major challenge. Since each
tumor vascular endothelial cell can
support the growth of up to 100 other
tumor cells, targeting them should be
more effective than killing individual
tumor cells at random.
New delivery systems for cancer drugs
have revolutionized clinical oncology.
For example, linking (conjugating) cancer
drugs to polymer molecules can radically
change their pharmacokinetics,
increasing their circulation times and
passively targeting tumors via the
enhanced permeability and retention
(EPR) effects. Small anticancer drugs
rapidly and nonselectively pass through
cell membranes, whereas the much larger
polymer-drug conjugates can only enter
cells via endocytosis. Since most normal
tissues are “non-leaky,” the conjugates
accumulate in tumor tissue, which has a
notoriously leaky vascular supply.
Angiogenesis is a complicated process
that involves many growth factors, their
receptors, cytokines, proteases and
adhesion molecules (see figure).
Conversely, each crucial agent represents
a potential target for therapeutic
intervention. In the U.S. alone more than
forty diverse angiogenesis inhibitors are
currently undergoing clinical trials for
late-stage cancer. These therapies aim
either to prevent the formation of new
vessels (e.g., endostatin, angiostatin,
TNP-470, VEGF-antagonists and VEGFreceptor inhibitors) or to damage existing
vessels. All can benefit from more tissuespecific delivery. In particular, focusing
them on the angiogenic focus in tumors
would enhance their therapeutic
potency. This is particularly important
for angiogenesis inhibitors whose dose
cannot be increased because of sideeffects. For example, TNP-470 shows
promising anti-angiogenic and
antitumor activity; but its use has been
significantly limited by neurotoxicity at
the optimal anticancer dose.
Recently, TAU researcher Dr. Ronit
Satchi-Fainaro and Dr. Folkman
(Harvard Medical School) successfully
designed, produced and used a watersoluble polymer conjugate to deliver
TNP-470, in a targeted manner, to the
tumor neovasculature (new blood
vessels) of in vivo cancer models. Their
innovative new drug, Caplostatin, links
TNP-470 to a HPMA copolymer molecule
via a Gly-Phe-Leu-Gly “bridge” (linker).
This enhanced and prolonged the activity
of TNP-470 which, as hoped,
accumulated in the tumor
microvasculature via EPR effects. There
the Gly-Phe-Leu-Gly linker was cleaved
by cathepsin B, a local enzyme
overexpressed in tumor endothelial cells,
releasing TNP-470 to the cytoplasm.
The researchers found that Caplostatin
potently inhibited tumor angiogenesis
and subsequent tumor growth in their
in vivo tumor models (U87 human
glioblastoma, PC3 human prostate
carcinoma, A2058 human melanoma and
Lewis Lung carcinoma) and in a
hepatectomy model. Recently, they were
able to completely eradicate human
colon carcinoma in mice by the
combination of caplostatin and Avastin.
Equally important, Caplostatin did not
cross the blood-brain barrier and did not
induce neurotoxicity. Dr. Satchi-Fainaro
and her colleagues are now using HPMA
copolymer conjugates containing
arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD)
motifs to promote selective binding to
integrins, which are overexpressed on
tumor endothelial cells. Combined with
anti-endothelial chemotherapy, this new
treatment should further enhance
effectiveness, particularly when the
tumor is well vascularized, but
vasculature permeability is poor.
Future research will focus on an even
earlier stage in tumor progression, the
point at which a dormant, avascular
tumor acquires the ability to grow by
“switching on” angiogenesis. It is possible
to imagine using a potent angiogenesis
inhibitor to target the first generation of
angiogenic vessels in a still tiny tumor
that is just starting out. Such an agent
might maintain the dormancy of that
proto-tumor indefinitely. Dr. SatchiFainaro hopes that such therapies could
help convert cancer into a chronic, but
manageable disease.
Comparing Protein Networks to
Elucidate Cellular Machinery
Scientists now have complete genomic
sequences of several species, from bacteria
to humans. Their next major challenge is
to understand how the complex interaction
networks of the proteins encoded in those
genomes give rise to biological form and
function. Just five years ago, only several
hundred molecular interactions were
known for any one organism; now
advanced technologies have produced data
on thousands of interactions for multiple
species. Once properly analyzed, this
voluminous data should provide a global
view of the molecular networks governing
the signaling and regulatory circuitry of the
cell.
Dr. Roded Sharan of TAU School of
Computer Science, and his colleagues at
the University of California, have
developed a comparative approach for
analyzing molecular networks based on
the observation that cellular components
with critical biological functions tend to
be conserved in evolution. Reversing this
logic, subnetworks that are conserved
across multiple species are likely to
correspond to functional components of
the cell. Their innovative NetworkBLAST
tool performs automatic searches for
conserved subnetworks in a collection of
protein networks. The computational
process integrates interaction and
sequence information to generate an
alignment of networks from several
species (see accompanying figure).
Each node in the network alignment
consists of a group of sequence-similar
proteins, one from each species. Each link
between a pair of nodes represents
conserved interactions between the
corresponding protein groups. Substructures of the network alignment
correspond to conserved subnetworks
and are identified using an efficient search
procedure.
The researchers recently used
NetworkBLAST to compare the proteinprotein interaction networks of Baker’s
yeast, nematode worm and fruit fly. This
comparison revealed dozens of network
regions that were conserved across all three
species and shown to represent functional
components of the cell. These regions were
further used to predict thousands of new
protein functions and interactions, some
of which have been verfied experimentally.
Many of these predicted functions and
interactions would not have been identified
from sequence similarity alone,
demonstrating that network comparisons
provide essential biological information
beyond what can be gleaned from the
genome alone.
Pairwise network alignment.
Computerized Medical Image Processing
and Analysis
Medical imagery plays an increasingly
important clinical role in screening,
diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. More
recently it has entered the operating
room as part of pre-planning and
invasive procedures. Its various
modalities, such as microscopy,
computerized tomography (CT) and
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI),
provide vital information from the
cellular to whole-organ level. Key
technological challenges are to develop
algorithmic capabilities for extracting
useful information from the visual data
and to quantify clinical measures for
medical use. Such challenges are the core
of the research at the TAU Medical Image
Processing Laboratory, headed by Dr.
Hayit Greenspan of the Department of
Biomedical Engineering.
MRI is the major imaging technique for
diagnosing and monitoring brain
diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS),
the most common non-traumatic
neurological disorder in young adults.
Dr. Greenspan’s group is developing novel
computerized algorithms to advance
automated MRI image segmentation and
analysis of brain tissues, and support
and progression of lesions, while unifying
the segmentation, detection and tracking
tasks (Figure 2). Dr. Greenspan, in
collaboration with the MS unit of TelHashomer Medical Center, is currently
evaluating the ability of these methods to
Figure 1: Brain segmentation: (a) noisy input image (b) state-of-the-art image (c) image using new TAU algorithm.
improve quantitative MS disease
evaluation and prognosis in a real-life
clinical setting.
A second area of interest involves the
automated handling of medical-image
archives. Medical-image databases are
becoming key components in diagnosis
and preventive medicine; and “picture
archiving and communication systems”
Figure 2: Space-time segmentation of lesions and lesion-load quantification. Shown is a sequence of MR slices in time (left-to-right). Lesions are
automatically detected, segmented and tracked over time. Each active lesion is marked by a different color. Static lesions are in black.
(PACS) are becoming available across the
wards within hospitals (Figure 3). Efficient
research on MS. Multimodal data analysis
segmentation of noisy, low contrast
visual-based and content-based indexing
is used, including the fusion of
magnetic resonance images of the brain.
and retrieval of this information should
information across several MRI sequences
The brain image was represented by a
have a great impact on the ability of
(T1, T2, PD, Flair). They are developing
mixture model in which each tissue is
medical-image databases to contribute
statistical models to automatically and
represented by a large number of Gaussian
to diagnosis, research and training.
adaptively characterize the data, using
components to capture the complex
Existing systems are not applicable to
both parametric pattern-recognition
spatial layout of the tissue. Their novel
medical imagery’s special needs, and
methods (Gaussian-mixture models,
combination of global-intensity modeling
novel methodologies are urgently needed.
GMM) and non-parametric methods
with localized spatial-modeling has
Dr. Greenspan’s group, one of a few
(such as mean-shift modeling).
advanced the state-of-the-art of brain
focusing on this problem, has become
The TAU team recently developed an
segmentation (Figure 1).
widely known for a statistical framework
automated algorithm for the tissue
An extension to GMM was developed in
called GMM-KL. As its name implies, it
space-time and applied as a lesion
uses GMM for a continuous region-based
characterization framework that analyzes
statistical representation of image content;
image-sequence inputs as single entities,
and it uses the information-theoretic
rather than a sequence of separated
criteria of Kullback-Leibler (KL) as a
frames. Clustering of the image sequence
probabilistic measure of image-similarity
yields a collection of discrete regions in a
to define the “distances” between
high-dimensional “feature-space”
continuous distributions. This framework
(including intensity, position and time).
has been shown to provide state-of-the-
The regions corresponding to MS lesions
art image retrieval capabilities for both
are automatically identified based on
general use and medical image archives.
mean intensity and size variability over
In the medical domain, the GMM-KL
time. Extracted space-time regions allow
framework automatically determines,
detecting and identifying disease events
based on an input image, the examined
and processes, such as the appearance
body-region and imaging modality. Given
Figure 3: Visual information management in a picture archiving
and communication system (PACS).
an input image, similar content images
are retrieved from the archive. The system’s
ability to help match and categorize X-ray
images by body regions has been
successfully validated in large archives of
radiological images (Figure 4). It is now
being extended to CT and MRI image
archives to help further validate this
important new tool for clinicians and
Figure 4: Query by example experiment. Query image is shown on the left; retrieved images are ordered by similarity on the right.
researchers alike.
Like a Virus it Spreads
How do new products spread in the
The TAU researchers are among the first
products, to explore how damaging
market? “Like a virus,” suggests Dr. Barak
to use complex systems methods to
negative word-of-mouth can be to a new
Libai and Prof. Eitan Muller of the
understand this growth. These simulation
product’s growth, and to suggest how
Recanati School of Business at the TAU
tools, which originated in physics and
firms could optimally react to slower new
Faculty of Management and colleague,
biology, have been used extensively to
product sales in some regions, compared
Prof. Jacob Goldenberg of the Hebrew
analyze the behavior of a broad range of
to others. Their recent article, with
University. Academic marketing
dynamic systems involving large
graduate student Tal Garber, in Marketing
researchers have often used epidemic-
numbers of interacting entities. Examples
like metaphors to help understand the
include physical particles, forest fires and
growth of markets for new products.
population migration. Even if the
Science (22(3), pp. 419-428, 2004)
provides examples which demonstrate
the advantages of this approach.
Past research has shown that one needs
large amounts of sales data to reliably
predict product success, data that is not
usually available early in the productintroduction cycle. The TAU researchers
suggest a way out of this impasse by
looking at the spatial dimension. Their
simulations suggest that successful new
products spread in geographic clusters,
due to the “contagion” effect. Conversely,
failures would be expected to spread in a
more random way. If geographical clusters
are early indicators of product success,
marketers need to look not only at how
much they initially sold, but also where.
Using cross-entropy analysis, the
researchers can distinguish between cases
of cluster formation and non-formation
early in the product-introduction process.
The spatial adoption of a successful innovation (t=time period).
interactions themselves are quite simple,
the system’s large size permits the
Their simulations have been validated
using real-world data. Their system
People are much affected by word-of-
emergence of complex patterns that are
mouth and imitation when deciding to
hard to predict and track, either
adopt a new product, so the current users
empirically or analytically. The
of a new product affect the number of
researchers are using classic complex
people who will adopt it in the future.
systems tools, such as cellular automata,
This “contagious” spread resembles the
to understand how commercial firms can
“The Internet has drawn marketers’
way people currently infected with the
use this knowledge to more effectively
attention to the important role of social
flu affect the number to be infected next
introduce new products. Much of their
connections among consumers,” says
month. Such models help researchers
studies in this area are presented in their
Libai. “But we are just in the early stages of
understand why some new products
web site.
understanding how social dynamics affect
enter the market slowly, while others
These pioneering studies have helped to
the market growth of new products. This
takeoff quickly, dominating a large
explain the widespread slump in sales
will clearly be one of the important frontiers
market share.
often seen in markets for technological
of market research in coming years.”
successfully “predicted” (post-facto) the
success or failure of 15 out of 17 real
innovations, only months after they
entered the market!
Mapping Musical Space and Motion
Music is universally related to human
motion, yet the ways changes in specific
musical parameters are cognitively
associated with dimensions of motion are
far from being fully understood. In a
recently published study in Music
Perception (23/3, 221-248, 2006),
Dr. Zohar Eitan of the Musicology
Division of TAU’s Buchman-Mehta School
of Music, together with Dr. Roni Granot
of the Hebrew University, investigated
such associations by examining how
musical parameters affect listeners’
images of bodily motion. The researchers
constructed pairs of musical stimuli, in
each of which one stimulus presented an
intensification of a specific musical
parameter, and the other an equivalent
abatement, while all other parameters
remained constant. The manipulated
parameters included loudness (crescendo
vs. diminuendo), tempo (acceleration vs.
deceleration), pitch direction (rise vs. fall),
pitch intervals and articulation.
Participants were asked to associate each
of these musical stimuli, presented in
random order, with imagined motions of
a human character, and to specify the type
(e.g., walking or running), directions and
pace-changes of these motions.
Comparing responses to each two pairmembers (e.g., ascent vs. descent)
indicated how each musical parameter
affected kinetic imagery.
Results suggest systematic musicalmotional mappings, which are much
more intricate than previously
acknowledged. First, most musical
parameters significantly affected several
dimensions of motion imagery. Thus,
pitch direction affected imagined motion
along all three spatial axes (not only
verticality), as well as velocity and
“energy.” Second, musical space was
found to be surprisingly crooked
(assymetrical), with a musical change in
one direction often evoking a significantly
stronger spatial analogy than its opposite.
Such asymmetries included even the
entrenched association of pitch change
and spatial verticality: listeners strongly
associated pitch “falls” with spatial ones,
but only weakly associated “rises” in pitch
with rises in space. In general, musical
abatements were strongly associated with
spatial descent, while musical
intensifications were generally associated
with increasing speed (rather than ascent).
The researchers are currently investigating
further aspects of these intriguing
findings, such as developmental issues,
verbal vs. non-verbal responses, and how
complex interactions of different musical
parameters, as found in actual music,
affect our images of space and motion.
Anxiety and the Brain
Anxiety is a normal and important
reaction to stress, facilitating the
detection of danger in the environment
and fostering prompt and effective
responses to threatening situations.
However, when anxiety becomes an
excessive, irrational dread of everyday
situations, it can become serious, a
disabling disorder. Anxiety disorders are
quite frequent, with a one-year
prevalence exceeding 16% of all adults
and an even larger percentage of
children. The time-course of these
incapacitating disorders is characterized
by relatively early ages of onset,
chronicity, recurrent episodes of illness
(relapses) and periods of disability. No
wonder that the etiology and risk-factors
of anxiety disorders are the targets of
cutting-edge medical and basic research.
Drs. Yair Bar-Haim and Dominique
Lamy, and their doctoral student Sharon
Nitzan of the TAU Department of
Psychology, with the generous assistance
of the Adler Center for Research in Child
Development and Psychopathology and
the French Friends of TAU, study the
neural correlates of biases and
malfunctions in the processing of threatrelated information in anxious adults and
their developmental course in children.
Using recordings of event-related brain
electrical potentials and brain imaging
technologies for source localization, they
and their students have identified several
parts of the brain as key actors in the
dynamic interplay that gives rise to fear
and anxiety.
Their data show that as early as 80
milliseconds after exposure to threatrelated stimuli, when these stimuli are
still clearly outside the participant’s
conscious awareness, anxious individuals
respond with tense neuronal activation
in the primary visual cortex (the earliest
visual cortical area) and in the limbic
system, which is responsible for the
emotional processing of incoming
information. This intense pre-conscious
neuronal activation appears to interrupt
ongoing cognitive activities carried out
by the “executive” frontal parts of the
brain, thereby interfering with these
anxious individuals’ ability to meet basic
behavioral demands.
By clarifying the brain circuitry involved
in fear and anxiety, this seminal TAU
research may help devise new and more
specific treatments for anxiety disorders.
One approach would be to try to place
the early anxiety-related neuronal
responses of the limbic system under
greater influence by the executive parts
of the brain. Preliminary intervention
studies using these guidelines are already
underway.
The top panel shows brain waves of anxious and non-anxious individuals from selected electrode sites. The bottom panel shows how neuronal activation during threat processing differs in anxious and
non-anxious individuals. Stronger neuronal activation in the primary visual cortex and the limbic system is observed in anxious relative to non-anxious individuals immediately following threat onset (C1).
In contrast, stronger neuronal activation in non-anxious relative to anxious individuals is observed during processing stages associated with cognitive resource allocation (P1, N1, P2). Finally, stronger
neuronal activation in anxious relative to non-anxious individuals is observed during later processing stages associated with threat encoding (LPC).
How Ideology Produces Space
For many years space was treated in legal
analysis as the dead, the inert, the
undialectical and the immobile. In reality,
however, the space we inhabit affects the
way we perceive of social reality. In
particular, territorial jurisdictions produce
political and social identities. They define
the people that occupy them and
differentiate citizens from aliens, urbanites
from country-folk, settlers from pioneers.
How is space produced? Does law play a
role in its production? And if so, what lies
behind the perception of space by legal
agents? A recent book, Taking Space
Seriously (Ashgate Publishing, 2004), by
Dr. Issachar Rosen-Zvi of the TAU Faculty
of Law, attempts to answer these questions
by exploring the important, yet covert,
role played by ideology in the production
of space.
Ideology is a set of ideas, principles, myths
and symbols that give members of a social
group a sense of connectedness while
legitimizing the existing social order. Since
space is a social product, it too is subject
to the legitimizing power of ideology; but
the actual, often convoluted, mechanisms
through which ideology affects the
production of space are still somewhat of
a mystery. Rosen-Zvi seeks to fill this
intellectual gap by analyzing the
production of Israel’s territorial
jurisdiction in the case of three specific
social groups: Mizrahi (Eastern) Jews,
Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) Jews and
Palestinian Arabs. His case studies reveal
that political space assumes a complex
and intricate role in legal analysis. In fact,
in each case, different conceptions of
space organized the courts’ imagination
and discussion.
In the case of Mizrahi Jews, political space
completely disappeared. The courts
simply refused to recognize the existence
of Mizrahi spaces. Any ethically
homogeneous jurisdiction was treated as
an administrative convenience bearing
no moral or political meaning. In the
Palestinian case, the opposite was true.
Space was resurrected in order to reify and
justify a political community and to
ground its boundaries in a jurisdiction
having a natural and pre-political
meaning. The courts treated Arab
townships as organic jurisdictions that
marked the boundaries of a distinct
political community, and attempts to
trespass these boundaries were harshly
suppressed. In the Haredi case, political
geography played an ambiguous role.
Legal discourse oscillated between
transparency and opacity, revealing an
underlying ambivalence of the courts as
to the nature of the Haredi community
and its territory.
Rosen-Zvi attempts to analyze the unifying
logic behind this diverse treatment of
space in legal analysis by situating it within
a broader political, historical and
sociological context. Zionist ideology
played an important role in the production
of the Israeli politico-spatial map and the
disparate treatment of political geography
reflects a corresponding deep tension in
the Israeli-Zionist political thought. Spaces
are produced through dialectical
processes of interaction (negation,
negotiation and subordination) between
Zionism, as an institutional ideology, and
its various “Others.” Israeli courts, as part
of the Zionist establishment, inevitably
engage, in tacit nation-building. This
propelled the courts to deny recognition
to Mizrahi Jews as a distinct ethnic
subgroup, treating them instead as mere
individuals. The same desire drove the
courts to recognize the Palestinian Arabs
as a distinct subgroup, which justified their
spatial expulsion from the Zionist bodypolitic. The Haredim – as unabsorbable
hence unredeemable strangers – received
an inconsistent and ambivalent treatment,
reflecting an inherent inability to
determine whether they should be
included in the national project (and
denied subgroup status) or excluded from
it (and recognized as distinct).
This conclusion may seem somewhat
counterintuitive. What is commonly
described by both the political right and
the left as a benevolent recognition of
cultural difference – one that justifies and
perhaps requires some sort of geographic
separatism – is seen by Rosen-Zvi as an
attempt to deny certain groups a place
within the body-politic. Segregationist
practices are rhetorically transformed into
“respect for cultural differences,” which
are spatially expressed in separate organic
jurisdictions. Conversely, the denial of
subgroup status and spatial independence
are transformed into a benevolent desire
to “include” the group within the Zionist
national project, which can be no less
oppressive. Some groups get neither.
Looking beyond Israel, Rosen-Zvi’s
thought-provoking analysis is yet another
reminder of the intricate and diverse ways
in which ideology interacts with space and
society, ways which do not always
conform to comfortable, preordained
categories.
TAU Trends in Research is published by the Tel Aviv University (TAU) Office of the Vice President and Dean for Research, Prof. Hagit Messer-Yaron.
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