The British Journal of Sociology
Volume 51 No. 3 September 2000
pages 525-552
Abstract
The relative standings of four ethnic groups-Muslim Palestinians, Christian Palestinians, Asian-African Jews, European Jews-were compared, using mobility data from 1974 and 1991. The findings show that despite the lack of government support and the prevalence of inexorable discrimination against Israeli Palestinians, they have narrowed the gap with Asian-African Jews in both education and occupational prestige. This finding demonstrates that ideological and political hegemony is not always effective in improving the socio-economic standing of preferred minorities (Asian-African Jews), and that social and economic structures may counterbalance the anti-Palestinian nationalist ideology. The analysis suggests that residential and educational segregation of Palestinians protects them from direct competition with European Jews, whereas Asian-African Jews have to compete with this dominant group in schools, as well as in the labour market.
Keywords: ethnonationalism, stratification, Israel, Israeli Arabs (Palestinians), Sephardic Jews, segregation
Vered Kraus and Yuval Yonay
Department of Sociology
University of California, Berkeley