Rural development in Israel consists of a unique variety of industrialization experiences that may be instructive for many countries at various stages of development. The social, ideological, political, economic, and organizational precepts that Israel's rural settlements are based on lend themselves to many different approaches. This book deals with industrialization patterns in the kibbutz, the moshav, the non-agricultural village, and the Arab village. Prevailing conditions (size and labor force, availability of skills, infrastructure) and objectives (creation of employment, improvement of living standards) vary depending on the specific type of settlement As a result, optimal policy for rural industrialization is different from village to village. The authors give the general background of and define the specific development objectives for each type of village. They review relevant conditions at the local and regional levels; analyze the individual experiences of industrial development; evaluate economic achievement and attainment of development goals; and determine influential factors. The final aim is to reassess Israeli policies and strategies and offer lessons to other countries undertaking rural industrialization.

Many Arab communities in Israel's Galilee region are home to export-oriented textile factories, owned by multinational corporations, whose Jewish managers employ local Arab and Druse women as seamstresses and low-level work supervisors. Based on five years of ethnographic research, this book explores how these managers and workers negotiate the terms and meanings of factory work, integrating work culture with the norms and values of the host towns in order for employment arrangements to succeed. The entrance of industrial corporations into developing areas of the world, particularly in those industries employing primarily women, has generated tension between traditional familial and social roles and the demands of industrial working life. In Israel these tensions are further complicated by the social and political dynamics of Arab-Jewish conflict, as well as the strictly demarcated roles of women and men in traditional Arab society. The resolution of these tensions on the shop floor shapes the social relations of production, the factories' management systems, family life in the industrial towns, and individual status and autonomy. The negotiation involves unequal power relations, manifested in a dual patriarchal structure: the Arab cultural practice of male domination of women as well as the formal management system of the textile concern, which dictates the nature of relationships between Jewish managers and Arab women workers. To meet their business goals, the managers must cooperate with the community that provides their workforce, adapting its norms and appropriating its worldview. The managers are constrained by the strict social rules of Arab and Druse society, and respond by attempting to harness and manipulate local family values to foster personal commitment, furthering production goals through paternal control. The consequence of this paternalism is a workforce that relates to the organization as family, identifies with its goals, and internalizes feelings of loyalty. However, the workforce also uses the plant as the arena for developing self-awareness and enhancing personal independence and status within the family. The seamstresses emerge as active shapers of the organizational culture, forcing the managers to adapt to and comply with their personal needs and perceptions of work.

The Arab Minority in Israel's Economy considers the Arab population as an integral, albeit disadvantaged, part of Israeli society. Using data from a thirty-year period, the book looks at Arab participation in the economy, especially in the labor market, showing how significant socioeconomic inequality persists despite a fundamental tenet of Israel's declaration of independence asserting equality of political and social rights of all its citizens. Taking an ethnic competition perspective, the authors explore the extent of inequality, uncovering the institutional and social processes that influence it. They examine the role of local labor markets and individual human resources, giving special attention to the growing labor force participation of Arab women. They also consider the gains of the majority Jewish population that have resulted from competition and economic discrimination against Arabs. Although the Arab community in Israel has been studied in the past, this book is unique in its detailed analysis of employment activity within and outside of the Arab sector and in examining both Arabs and Jews within the stratification system. The book fosters deeper understanding of Israeli society and of multi-ethnic societies more generally.

This book analyzes the development of the Israeli economy in its historical context. It shows how the ideology of the dominant group in the Zionist movement led to the development of agriculture, thus meeting the preconditions for successful industrialization. Remarkable, if uneven, growth has taken place, with increasing allocations for defense. Regional isolation led to the emphasis on high-quality exports for developed markets that has stimulated the technological base. Israel has benefited from mass immigration and increased access to foreign capital, factors that have transformed the economy. The book includes chapters on the development of the Jewish community in Palestine during the British Mandate; macroeconomic developments and economic policy; globalization and high technology; defense; the economics of the Arab minority; Israeli settlements and relations with the Palestinians; and the role of religion. It concludes with an examination of the socioeconomic divisions that have widened as the economy has grown.

This is the only book you'll ever need in order to comprehend the complexities of the Middle East.

This volume examines the status of the Palestinian citizens in Israel and explores ethnic privileging and the dynamics of social conflict.

"This report documents how settlement businesses facilitate the growth and operations of settlements. These businesses depend on and contribute to the Israeli authorities' unlawful confiscation of Palestinian land and other resources. They also benefit from these violations, as well as Israel's discriminatory policies that provide privileges to settlements at the expense of Palestinians, such as access to land and water, government subsidies, and permits for developing land"--Publisher's description.

Eugene Rogan has written an authoritative new history of the Arabs in the modern world. Starting with the Ottoman conquests in the sixteenth century, this landmark book follows the story of the Arabs through the era of European imperialism and the Superpower rivalries of the Cold War, to the present age of unipolar American power. Drawing on the writings and eyewitness accounts of those who lived through the tumultuous years of Arab history, The Arabs balances different voices - politicians, intellectuals, students, men and women, poets and novelists, famous, infamous and the completely unknown - to give a rich, complex sense of life over nearly five centuries. Rogan's book is remarkable for its geographical sweep, covering the Arab world from North Africa through the Arabian Peninsula, and for the depth in which it explores every facet of modern Arab history. Charting the evolution of Arab identity from Ottomanism to Arabism to Islamism, it covers themes including the conflict between national independence and foreign domination, the Arab-Israeli struggle and the peace process, Abdel Nasser and the rise of Arab Nationalism, the political and economic power of oil and the conflict between secular and Islamic values. This multilayered, fascinating and definitive work is the essential guide to understanding the history of the modern Arab world - and its future.

The Arab-Israeli conflict provides the world with one of its most intractable and dangerous problems. This documentary analysis of the period, first published in 1970, from the First World War to 1968 will be welcomed by all those who seek an impartial understanding of the problem. The editors have gathered together documents ranging from official papers, original maps and a Palestine/Israel population graph to quotations from contemporary historians and observers. So far as possible the documents themselves are made to tell the dramatic story of Arab-Israel relations. But the editors also place them in the broader context of Middle Eastern history and indicate major points of interest. The conclusion analyses fundamental issues and an appendix contains questions which may be answered from a study of the documents, thus providing a useful basis for discussion.

First published in 1976, Howard M. Sachar’s A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time was regarded one of the most valuable works available detailing the history of this still relatively young country. Decades later, readers can again be immersed in this monumental work. The second edition of this volume covers topics such as the first of the Aliyahs in the 1880s; the rise of Jewish nationalism; the beginning of the political Zionist movement and, later, how the movement changed after Theodor Herzl; the Balfour Declaration; the factors that led to the Arab-Jewish confrontation; Palestine and its role both during the Second World War and after; the war of independence and the many wars that followed it over the next few decades; and the development of the Israeli republic and the many challenges it faced, both domestic and foreign, and still faces today. This is a truly enriching and exhaustive history of a nation that holds claim to one of the most complicated and controversial histories in the world.