The Politics of Spatial Inequality in Israel 

Yinon Cohen

This article examines the dynamics of inequality between Jews and Palestinians in a spatial context (between regions) in recent decades. The findings show that most of the gaps between Jews and Palestinians in key socio-economic indices did not decrease and even increased in most areas of Israel between 1995 and 2008. The findings also show that since 1995, the employment situation of Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem and the Negev has deteriorated, the two areas in which an active process of taking over Palestinian land is taking place today. On the other hand, at that time the employment situation of the settler population improved compared to Jews living within the Green Line. The trends in birth rates - an increase in the overall productivity of Jewish women versus a decrease in Palestinian women - also indicate the (demographic) success of the settlement enterprise.

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Rap, Reggae and "The Strollers": Musical Tastes and Identities among Israeli-Ethiopian Youth

David Retner

The article deals with a phenomenon that has been documented and discussed extensively since the mid-1990s: the preference of Ethiopian youth in Israel for black music in general and the rap style in particular. The article is based on 40 in-depth interviews (some of them in groups) with young people aged 16–18, conducted in 2007–2009 in three localities in the center of the country. Using the theoretical and empirical approach of Pierre Bourdieu and his successors and the concept of "subcultural capital" proposed by Sarah Thornton, three categories of flavors are presented among young Ethiopians in contemporary Israel: rap lovers, reggae / dancehall enthusiasts and "the wanderers". The article shows that those who belong to the three categories differ not only in their musical taste but also in patterns of connection with their peers, perceptions regarding the nature of the society in which they live and the relationship between society as a whole and the Ethiopian community, as well as their perceptions and beliefs.

Holy Place: Between Workplace and Work of the Place

Noga Shani and Meirav Aharon-Gutman

Holy cities produce religious centrality and are a magnet for economic, political and social. With the establishment of the State of Israel, there was a change in the status of its holy cities and they became peripheral cities. The relative concepts of "center" and "periphery" have lost their power and become absolute, culture-dependent concepts that describe an urban reality and at the same time reproduce it. Through an urban ethnographic study conducted among Breslav Hasidim in Safed, we document the status of the holy cities, which are both a spiritual center and a state periphery. We analyzed this complexity using the term "place work." The work of the place, when interpreted as the work of God, strengthens the place as a sacred center; At the same time it limits the ability of individuals to work in the labor market, thereby perpetuating the status of a place as a state periphery. Through this analysis we challenge the accepted definitions of center and periphery and draw another map of coordinates, which makes it possible to redefine the concepts of center and periphery and thus restore their relative power to them.

The Low-Income College-Educated: From Self-Actualization to Radicalism

Yariv Mohar

In this article I will seek to understand how low-wage academics experience their social position. The literature examining this state of inconsistency between the various measures of stratification ("status conflict") describes a strong sense of breach of expectations for cohesive status. An open examination of how low-wage earners experience their social position, through semi-structured interviews, I found that they prefer self-realization over income and do not focus on breaking expectations. In the discussion I will point out the importance of understanding the self-perception of low-paid educated people, given their central role in igniting social and political radical protests. Hence a preliminary hypothesis as to their motives for action in protest.

Mission Impossible: Retirement and Identifying with Ageing Identity

Shlomit Manor

This article examines the formation of an aging identity among retirees in Israel. Work is a dominant element in identity, and in its absence the place of old age and the attitude towards age will be examined. Although retirement and old age are not necessarily identical or interrelated, it appears from the interviews that the retirees themselves empower each other and at the same time shy away from the same affinity and prefer to separate them. The findings reinforce the existing claim in the literature that in contemporary society it is difficult to identify with old age, but offer a new perspective that reveals the negotiations that retirees conduct with old age and age and how identity is shaped by negation. Precisely the efforts to disguise and repress old age indicate the existence and presence of old age in their identity, along with other elements of identity. The negation of old age and a retirement experience laden with contradictions and contrasts produce a hybrid and dynamic hybrid identity, enabling the existence of multiple identities.

Cultural Capital in Immigration: The "Fishka" Organization of Young Russian-Speakers in Tel Aviv

Anna Prashizky and Larissa Remennick

The purpose of the article is to examine the activities of the Fishka organization, an organization of young Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel, representatives of a generation and a half of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. With the help of a theoretical conceptualization of cultural capital in immigration, we examine how cultural capital is built and produced in a unique immigration field of young Russian-speaking immigrants in Tel Aviv. We seek to answer three questions: how immigrants, Fishka participants, create new forms of cultural capital in immigration (referring to the cultural capital of Russian culture made in the country); What are the components of that new cultural capital; And what is the role of ethnic and class power relations in creating practices of segregation. Immigrants not only import their cultural capital from their country of origin, but create new and hybrid forms of cultural capital in their country of residence, among other things through translation from the Russian language into the Hebrew language and vice versa. They use the resources they brought from the country of origin, develop them into new cultural capital and give it validity within the organization's activities. With the help of this cultural capital, Pishka participants gain, in their perception, social prestige and social advantage, improve the status of the group of Russian immigrants to which they belong and develop a sense of pride in their culture. Moreover, they develop a sense of belonging and a sense of ownership of the new place - Israel - and especially of the urban space of Tel Aviv, in which they operate.

 

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Waking Up to an Old Morning: On the Post-Traumatic Electoral Behavior of the Israeli Social Groups

Amnon Yuval

Since 1977, with the exception of brief pauses, the right has been in power in Israel and has gained electoral superiority over the left. Nonetheless, in recent decades one can identify a regular ritual in which the “white tribe” accepts its losses in elections in astonishment and rage, while the right identified with the Eastern voters sees its victories as a miracle from heaven. The reactions of both parties, equally illogical, must be explained not only by a sociological analysis of the division of control in the social centers of power between the Ashkenazi left and the Mizrahi left, but also by applying the concepts of trauma and demonstration (acting out), unconscious and uncontrollable repetition of symptoms Post-traumatic human or group life) about these groups. The demonstration of the left is related to the trauma of the 1977 upheaval and that of Rabin's assassination, while that of the right is related to the experience of discrimination and racism on the part of the establishment experienced by North African (and Asian) immigrants during and after the 1950s.

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A symposium on the loneliness of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict | Efrat Ben-Ze'ev

• Refugees of the Revolution: Experiences of Palestinian Exile \ Diana Allan

• The Rise and Fall of Human Rights: Cynicism and Politics in Occupied Palestine \ Lori Allen

• Governing Gaza: Bureaucracy, Authority and the Work of Rule, 1917-1967 \ Ilana Feldman

• Itineraries in Conflict: Israelis, Palestinians, and the Political Lives of Tourism \ Rebecca L. Stein