Discuss several aspects of the socio-economic cleavage in Israel

Résumé du document

On July 5th, 1950, the Knesset unanimously passed the Law of Return which gives the Israeli citizenship to every Jews who want to immigrate to Israel. The Law of Return, criticized by some Human Right Organizations , symbolizes the legislative concretisation of the Zionist dream: the return and the redemption of the Jewish people in Eretz Israel. Following the establishment of the State of Israel, massive waves of immigration came from Europe after the Holocaust, North Africa and Middle East in the 50s and 60s and finally from the former Soviet Union after 1989. Those massive immigrations from different countries, continents and cultures represent a key challenge for the state. The government has to deal with different religious, social, economic and cultural backgrounds in order to integrate the new immigrants in the Israeli society and economy. Though, can only immigration explain the socio-economic cleavages in Israeli society?

Extraits

[...] Website of the Bank of Israel. The Law of Return proclaims that jews means a person who was born of a Jewish mother or has become converted to Judaism and who is not a member of another religion (amendment no.2) In 2007, Amnesty International denounced the Law of Return like racist. Native born Israelis. Especially in North Africa, much of the educated elite moved to France while the bulk of the community immigrated to Israel. In foreign workers and 47,100 Palestinians were employed in Israel. [...]

[...] The new immigrants, especially Middle Eastern Jews, by integrating into Israeli life, have acculturated to Western society. Families have become smaller and less patriarchal; fertility rates have decreased; women have entered the job market; “Western” consumer patterns and leisure have been adopted and religious observance and traditional customs have declined. At the same time, for instance, festivals associated with particular communities, such as the Moroccan mimouna, became a legitimate part of public life. The State invests a substantial amount of ressources in order to integrate new immigrants[9]. [...]

[...] Discuss several aspects of the socio-economic cleavage in Israel. Explain to what extent it is defined by the time people immigrated to Israel On July 5th the Knesset unanimously passed the Law of Return which gives the Israeli citizenship to every Jews[1] who want to immigrate to Israel. The Law of Return, criticized by some Human Right Organizations[2], symbolizes the legislative concretisation of the Zionist dream: the return and the redemption of the Jewish people in Eretz Israel. Following the establishment of the State of Israel, massive waves of immigration came from Europe after the Holocaust, North Africa and Middle East in the 50s and 60s and finally from the former Soviet Union after 1989. [...]

[...] For example, the concentration of weak immigrant students in the schools limits their achievements. Consequently, the immigration policy has gradually changed and focused on laissez- faire” (no state intervention for settlement) during the immigration from former Soviet Union. The rise of Shas is an exception. In 2001, the Large Families Law was passed, which significantly increased the child allowance to families with five or more children. In July 2003, it was decided to gradually cut the child allowance for the third child. Integration of exiles. [...]

[...] Despite the help of the government, due to their low level of educational and vocational skills, a large percentage of Ethiopian immigrants work as unskilled laborers and they still belong to the low level of society with a very low rate of employment[7] and a very low income per standard individual[8] compared with verteran Israelis. B. An active public policy in order to reduce the cleavages tied to the immigration. The absorpion of less skilled immigrants forces the state to intervene in order to reduce the socio-economic gap between sabras and new immigrants. The public policy has changed. At the start, the Ashkenazi elite adopted attitudes of paternalism toward Middle Eastern Jews which caused reprobation among them. Therefore, the Ashkenazi elite tried to integrate new immigrants respecting their culture and differences. [...]