On the Margins

The status in the national economy of Israel's Arab population is perhaps the clearest indication of their status in Israeli society; it reveals relative disadvantage in every economic sector compared with other social groups. The author relates his findings to Arab life in Israel generally, exploring the relations between the Arab minority and the Jewish majority, including Israel's political establishment. He devotes special attention to the limitations of what the Israeli state can achieve through its policy of supervision and control of the Arab minority, and the shift by the Arabs from a passive to an active role in defending their own interests in the face of government pressures. The author rejects the notion that the Israeli state has "modernized" the economy of the Arab population and that the relative underdevelopment of the Arab economic sector is attributable to inherent socio-cultural factors.