ToC: Israel Studies 22.2 (2017)

Israel Studies 22.2 (2017)

Table of Contents

    Special Section: Religion And Ethnicity

•         Like a Phoenix: The Renaissance of Sephardic/Mizrahi Identity in Israel in the 1970s and 1980s / Avi Picard (pp. 1-25)
•         Philoumenos of Jacob’s Well: The Birth of a Contemporary Ritual Murder Narrative / David Gurevich and Yisca Harani (pp. 26-54)
•         William James in the Holy Land: Religious Experience and Secular-Believer Jewish Women in Israel / Hagar Lahav (pp. 55-77)
•         “Belfast Is Not Here”: The Israeli Press and the Good Friday Agreement / Aidan Beatty (pp. 78-95)

Articles

•         The Kibbutz and the Development Town: The Economic Dimension of Their Reciprocal Relations—The Case of the Hula Valley / Amir Goldstein (pp. 96-120)
•         Kibbutz Under Fire: Back to the Days of Sickle and Bayonet / Zeev Drory, Eyal Lewin and Eyal Ben-Ari (pp. 121-144)
•         The Fiscal Path to the State of Israel: Social Policy and State Building in the Yishuv during the Mandate / Michal Koreh and Daniel Béland (pp. 145-168)
•         What is Israeli in Israeli Art? A Psychoanalytic Solution / Efrat Biberman (pp. 169-187)

New Article: Arar et al, Educational Leadership for Social Justice in Israel and Turkey

Arar, Khalid, Kadir Beycioglu, and Izhar Oplatka. “A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Educational Leadership for Social Justice in Israel and Turkey: Meanings, Actions and Contexts.” Compare (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2016.1168283

 

Abstract

The research compares principals in Israel (Jewish and Arab) and Turkey and how they perceive and practice their role in promoting social justice (SJ) in their schools in order to bridge socioeconomic and pedagogic gaps. It poses three questions: (1) How do Turkish and Israeli SJ leaders make sense of SJ? (2) What do SJ leaders do in both countries similarly and differently? (3) What factors facilitate or hinder the work of SJ in both countries? The qualitative study employed in-depth semi-structured interviews to collect the narratives of 11 school principals in Turkey and Israel. A comparative, holistic analysis was employed to identify the principals’ perceptions and daily practice of SJ in their schools. The principals reported different sociocultural, national and personal trajectories that shaped their perceptions of SJ, and described strategies used to promote SJ in their daily scholastic policies, processes and practices that meet the school stakeholders’ backgrounds and needs.

 

 

 

New Article: Shechory-Bitton & Soen, The Refugee Problem as Perceived by Israeli Residents

Shechory-Bitton, Mally, and Dan Soen. “Community Cohesion, Sense of Threat, and Fear of Crime: The Refugee Problem as Perceived by Israeli Residents.” Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15377938.2016.1187237

 

Abstract

The study deals with the concentration of African refugees in southern Tel-Aviv neighborhoods. It analyzes the impact of this situation on Israeli residents’ perception of their neighborhood. Based on a sample of 214 people four analyses were conducted: (1) symbolic and real threat felt by the residents; (2) fear of crime, neighborhood disorder, perceived risk, and community cohesiveness; (3) objective exposure; (4) distress. Distress in the neighborhood was found to be a function of fear of crime, perceived risk, and community cohesiveness. Perceptions of symbolic threat play a much more important role than real feelings of threat or fear of socio-economic competition. Likewise, it was found that African refugees are perceived as a threat to the cultural and national homogeneity of Jewish Israeli residents.

 
 
 

New book: Khattab et al, Socioeconomic Inequality in Israel

Khattab, Nabil, Sami Miaari, and Haya Stier, eds. Socioeconomic Inequality in Israel. A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

 

 

This volume addresses different aspects and areas of inequality in Israel, a country characterized by high levels of economic inequality, poverty, and social diversity. The book expands on the mechanisms that produce and maintain inequality, and the role of state policies in influencing those mechanisms.

 

Table of Contents

The Correlates of Household Debt in Late Life
Lewin-Epstein, Noah (et al.)
Pages 13-40

Household Inequality and the Contribution of Spousal Correlations
Plaut, Pnina O. (et al.)
Pages 41-57

Religious Schooling, Secular Schooling, and Household Income Inequality in Israel
Kimhi, Ayal (et al.)
Pages 59-72

First-Generation College Students in an Expanded and Diversified Higher Education System: The Case of Israel
Ayalon, Hanna (et al.)
Pages 75-96

Ethno-Religious Hierarchy in Educational Achievement and Socioeconomic Status in Israel: A Historical Perspective
Friedlander, Dov (et al.)
Pages 97-121

Overqualification and Wage Penalties among Immigrants, Native Minorities, and Majority Ethnic Groups
Khattab, Nabil (et al.)
Pages 123-149

The Gender Revolution in Israel: Progress and Stagnation
Mandel, Hadas (et al.)
Pages 153-184

Gender Earnings Gaps in Ethnic and Religious Groups in Israel
Kraus, Vered (et al.)
Pages 185-204

The Role of Peripheriality and Ethnic Segregation in Arabs’ Integration into the Israeli Labor Market
Schnell, Izhak (et al.)
Pages 207-224

Horizontal Inequality in Israel’s Welfare State: Do Arab Citizens Receive Fewer Transfer Payments?
Shalev, Michael (et al.)
Pages 225-252

 

Report: Shatz et al, Developing Long-Term Socioeconomic Strategy in Israel

Shatz, Howard J., Steven W. Popper, Sami Friedrich, Shmuel Abramzon, Anat Brodsky, Roni Harel, and Ofir Cohen. Developing Long-Term Socioeconomic Strategy in Israel. Institutions, Processes, and Supporting Information. Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand Corporation, 2016.

 

 

URL: http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR275.html

Israel faces economic and social challenges. The government has not routinely developed and successfully implemented strategic responses to socioeconomic problems that demand longer-term, coordinated policy action. Effective means to respond to such longer-term challenges may require a more systematic government approach to policymaking. Researchers developed detailed recommendations related to institutions, processes, supporting information, outputs, and implementation for the Israeli government to apply a strategic perspective toward socioeconomic issues and develop a formal socioeconomic strategy for Israel should the government desire to do so. They mapped the institutions and processes in the formation of socioeconomic strategy in the state of Israel as they existed at the time of the project in 2011; described the information used to support strategy formation; analyzed the evaluation and monitoring processes in current strategy formation; identified the gaps in current strategy formation institutions, processes, information, and evaluation and monitoring; conducted international case studies of strategy formation; and compared Israeli practices with international practices.

New Article: Schipper, Towards a ‘Post-Neoliberal’ Mode of Housing Regulation

Schipper, Sebastian. “Towards a ‘Post-Neoliberal’ Mode of Housing Regulation? The Israeli Social Protest of Summer 2011.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12318

 

Abstract

In the summer of 2011, after decades of virtually uncontested neoliberalization, Israel was swept by unprecedented protests against the rising cost of living, social inequality and, most particularly, escalating housing prices. Within two weeks, a small protest camp established on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv had grown into a mass movement involving hundreds of thousands of people across the country. Given an ambivalent sense of the significance of urban movements in bringing about social change, the aim of this article is to analyze whether the Israeli social protest was able to push forward a post-neoliberal mode of housing regulation. Building on a framework developed by Brenner, Peck and Theodore to grasp transformations in the landscape of regulatory restructuring, this article argues that the movement has indeed achieved a far-reaching hegemonic shift in public discourse and also become an important driver in promoting regulatory experiments. Despite its achievements, however, the movement was unable to challenge the Israeli ‘rule regime’ of neoliberalization, on account of two structural constraints that were shielded by the most powerful state apparatuses: the commodity character of housing; and a neoliberalized land regime, where state-owned land is treated as a profit machine for public finance.

 

 

 

New Article: Ben-Shahar & Warszawski, Inequality in Housing Affordability

Ben-Shahar, Danny, and Jacob Warszawski. “Inequality in Housing Affordability: Measurement and Estimation.” Urban Studies 53.6 (2016): 1178-1202.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042098015572529

 

Abstract

This research proposes and examines a new measure for assessing the state of housing affordability inequality. We employ a large micro-level data set by which we estimate and evaluate the time-varying housing affordability inequality in Israel over the period 1992–2011. Results show that our developed housing affordability inequality Gini coefficient has considerably increased in the past decade. Moreover, controlling for changes in net income inequality and macroeconomic conditions, housing affordability inequality is found to positively correlate with average housing prices (computed in net income terms). Outcomes are robust to the alternative Atkinson inequality index. Furthermore, our method allows for an examination of segmentation in housing affordability. We find that segmentation particularly prevails across household head’s gender, family status, working status, the number of income providers in the household and household geographical residence. Research outcomes may direct policymakers in designing policies aiming to reduce inequality and segmentation in housing affordability.

 

 

 

Lecture: Weiss, Social and Economic Policy in Israel (Berkeley, April 7, 2016)

Thursday, April 7

PUBLIC LECTURE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC POLICY IN ISRAEL  Avi Weiss Executive Director of the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel Time & Location To Be Announced Please RSVP Here Co-sponsored by the Department of Economics

ToC: International Journal of Educational Research 76 (2016); special section on Arabs in Israel

International Journal of Education Research 76 (2016)

Special section on Higher Education in a Transforming Society: The Case of Arabs in Israel; Guest edited by Hanoch Flum and Avi Kaplan

 

Higher education in a transforming society: The case of Arabs in Israel
Pages 89-95
Hanoch Flum, Avi Kaplan

Access to higher education and its socio-economic impact among Bedouin Arabs in Southern Israel
Pages 96-103
Ismael Abu-Saad

English as a gatekeeper: Inequality between Jews and Arabs in access to higher education in Israel
Pages 104-111
Yariv Feniger, Hanna Ayalon

On the meaning of higher education for transition to modernity youth: Lessons from future orientation research of Muslim girls in Israel
Pages 112-119
Rachel Seginer, Sami Mahajna

The paths of ‘return’: Palestinian Israeli women negotiate family and career after the university
Pages 120-128
Lauren Erdreich

The conception of work and higher education among Israeli Arab women
Pages 129-140
Rachel Gali Cinamon, Halah Habayib, Margalit Ziv

Higher education among minorities: The Arab case
Pages 141-146
Alean Al-Krenawi

New Article: Gross-Manos & Ben-Arieh, How Subjective Well-Being Is Associated With Material Deprivation in Israeli 12-Year-Olds

Gross-Manos, D., and A. Ben-Arieh. “How Subjective Well-Being Is Associated With Material Deprivation and Social Exclusion in Israeli 12-Year-Olds.” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry (early view; online first).

 
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26986840

 
Abstract

The literature examining the relations between economic situation and happiness has focused almost exclusively on a household’s income as a proxy for economic situation and, accordingly, also focused chiefly on the adult population, excluding children and adolescents. To fill this gap, this study examines the relation between economic deprivation and happiness by using 2 alternative proxies: material deprivation and social exclusion. The study tests the relation of these measures to the most common measure for happiness-subjective well-being (SWB)-in a sample of Israeli 12-year-olds (N = 1,081). The study also examines the effects of culture and life circumstances on these complex relations. Findings show that both material deprivation and social exclusion are negatively associated with children’s SWB. Social exclusion explained a much larger percentage of children’s SWB, adding up to 20%. Furthermore, children who were identified as materially deprived and socially excluded were found to be at much greater risk for unhappiness. Material deprivation was found to be significantly more important to the SWB of males compared with females, and for Jews compared with Arabs. Finally, some implications for social policy and regarding the relation of economic situation and happiness are discussed.

 

 

 

Report: Bowers and Fuchs, Women and Parents in the Labor Market

Bowers, Liora and Hadas Fuchs. “Women and Parents in the Labor Market – Israel and the OECD.” Policy Brief, Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, March 2016.

 

URL: http://taubcenter.org.il/wp-content/files_mf/womenandparents_eng.pdf (PDF)

 

Abstract
This brief examines Israeli women’s labor market outcomes and how maternity and parental leave laws in the country compare with those in the OECD. In recent decades, there has been an increase in employment rates among women – particularly among mothers with young children. With regard to payment rate and length of paid leave over a woman’s lifetime, Israel performs better than or similar to other OECD countries. However, there is a gap between Israel and the OECD when it comes to leave benefits for fathers and the design of parental leave benefits.

Report: Mapping ownership in Israeli media

http://www.the7eye.org.il/50534

The Israeli Media Ownership Map is an ongoing project of “The Seventh Eye,” intended to present, interpret, and track the identity of media moguls and business groups who control the media and its organizations in Israel. The chart allows not only to locate the identity of individuals and groups who control the media companies, but also to view their holdings in other areas, and thus obtain a certain idea of the web of interests in which they and their subordinates must act, including the level of centralization in the Israeli market and the cross ownership within it.

Click here for a PDF of the map.

מפת הבעלויות בתקשורת הישראלית היא פרויקט מתמשך של “העין השביעית” שמטרתו להציג, לבאר ולעקוב אחר זהותם של בעלי ההון והקבוצות העסקיות השולטות בגופי ואמצעי תקשורת בישראל. התרשים מאפשר למעיינים בו לא רק לאתר את זהותם של האישים והגופים השולטים בחברות המדיה, אלא גם להציג את אחזקותיהם מחוץ לתחום התקשורת – ובכך לקבל גם מושג כלשהו על רשת האינטרסים שמכורחה פועלים הם והכפופים להם, על רמת הריכוזיות במשק הישראלי ועל הבעלויות הצולבות בו.

New Article: Tamari et al, Urban Tribalism: Negotiating Form, Function and Social Milieu in Bedouin Towns

Tamari, Shlomit, Rachel Katoshevski, Yuval Karplus, and Steven C. Dinero. “Urban Tribalism: Negotiating Form, Function and Social Milieu in Bedouin Towns, Israel.” City, Territory and Architecture 3.2 (2016): 14pp.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40410-016-0031-3

 

Abstract

Historically, the tribe was a central pillar of Bedouin society. Recently, the forcibly resettled-Bedouin of Israel’s Negev Desert have experienced profound socio-economic transition and change in addition to spatial relocation. This paper offers a critical examination of the manner in which the tribe has served to inform top-down State-led urban planning, resettlement and housing policies while remaining a vital aspect of Bedouin life. We suggest that in an ironic twist, these policies have generated a new form of urban tribalism that challenges the development of a “modern,” “western” social fabric and practices of citizenship as initially envisioned by State officials.

 

 

 

New Article: Betti et al, Unequal Ageing in Europe

Betti, Gianni, Francesca Bettio, Thomas Georgiadis, and Platon Tinios. “Benchmarking the Analysis: Europe, Israel, and the United States.” In Unequal Ageing in Europe. Women’s Independence and Pensions (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015): 81-107.

 

 

Abstract

The treatment of pension gender gaps in the previous chapters has utilized the existence of comparable survey data to characterize pension gender gaps and their key features, using the European countries that participate in the EU SILC survey as a type of gender policy laboratory. It remains to see the extent to which the results derived are corroborated both by other kinds of data and in other advanced countries.

 

 

ToC: Israel Affairs 22.1 (2016)

Israel Affairs, Volume 22, Issue 1, January 2016 is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online. This new issue contains the following articles: Articles Sixty-two years of national insurance in Israel Abraham Doron Pages: 1-19 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111632 Rethinking reverence for Stalinism in the kibbutz movement Reuven Shapira Pages: 20-44 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111640 Making war, thinking history: David Ben-Gurion, analogical reasoning and the Suez Crisis Ilai Z. Saltzman Pages: 45-68 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111638   Military power and foreign policy inaction: Israel, 1967‒1973 Moshe Gat Pages: 69-95 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111636 Arab army vs. a Jewish kibbutz: the battle for Mishmar Ha’emek, April 1948 Amiram Ezov Pages: 96-125 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111633 Lip-service to service: the Knesset debates over civic national service in Israel, 1977–2007 Etta Bick Pages: 126-149 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111630 State‒diaspora relations and bureaucratic politics: the Lavon and Pollard affairs Yitzhak Mualem Pages: 150-171 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111637 Developing Jaffa’s port, 1920‒1936 Tamir Goren Pages: 172-188 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111634 University, community, identity: Ben-Gurion University and the city of Beersheba – a political cultural analysis Yitzhak Dahan Pages: 189-210 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111631 The Palestinian/Arab Strategy to Take Over Campuses in the West – Preliminary Findings Ron Schleifer Pages: 211-235 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111639 Identity of immigrants – between majority perceptions and self-definition Sibylle Heilbrunn, Anastasia Gorodzeisky & Anya Glikman Pages: 236-247 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111635 Book Reviews Jabotinsky: a life David Rodman Pages: 248-249 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.112095 Ethos clash in Israeli society David Rodman Pages: 250-251 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.1120967 Nazis, Islamists and the making of the modern Middle East David Rodman Pages: 252-254 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.1120968 The new American Zionism David Rodman Pages: 255-257 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.1120969 Rise and decline of civilizations: lessons for the Jewish people David Rodman Pages: 258-259 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.1120970

New Article: Hochman, Framing and Attitudes Toward Asylum Seekers in Israel

Hochman, Oshrat. “Infiltrators or Asylum Seekers? Framing and Attitudes Toward Asylum Seekers in Israel.” Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 13.4 (2015): 358-78.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2014.982779

 

Extract

This study asks whether framing asylum seekers in Israel as “infiltrators” posing threats to the country amplifies exclusion toward them. The term “infiltrators” associates asylum seekers with the anti-infiltration law passed in the 1950s to fight terrorists and dissociates asylum seekers from their unique position as holders of special rights. The term “infiltrators” may thus influence the attitudes of the Israeli public regarding the treatment of asylum seekers. Findings demonstrate that respondents presented with the “infiltrators” frame were more likely to show exclusionary attitudes. Findings additionally show that the framing effect mediates the relation between perceived socioeconomic threat and exclusion.

 

 

 

New Article: Gonen, Widespread and Diverse Forms of Gentrification in Israel

Gonen, Amiram. “Widespread and Diverse Forms of Gentrification in Israel.” In Global Gentrifications: Uneven Development and Displacement (ed. Loretta Lees,Hyun Bang Shin,and Ernesto Lopez-Morales; Bristol, UK and Chicago, IL: Policy Press, 2015): 143-63.

 

Extract

My ongoing observations over the last three decades on patterns of gentrification in Israeli inner cities, suburban towns and rural communities have led me to view gentrification from a different geographical perspective to the one shared by many Western researchers writing on gentrification. Research on gentrification originated in the heart of some Western cities and, therefore, gentrification was often characterised as primarily an inner-urban phenomenon. It was first observed and defined in an academic fashion in inner London and subsequently studied in the 1980s and early 1990s in the inner city of some North American and British cities. Indeed, the settling of middle class households in lower-social class neighbourhoods of the inner city has achieved sizeable proportions in Western cities since the 1970s.

[…]

The Israeli experience raises the issue of the need to widen the scope of the term ‘gentrification’ beyond lower-class neighbourhoods. This definitional widening is especially relevant to middle-class neighbourhoods in the inner city that have undergone some social downscaling, later reversed due to the return of middle-class households. I suggest that this return of such neighbourhoods to being again solidly middle-class areas should be included within the definition of gentrification as a special category of ‘regentrification’, added to the one proposed as ‘supergentrification’ for the further gentrification of already-gentrified neighbourhoods by the very rich global elites.

 

 

New Article: Shaked, Parental Participation Fees in School Expenses in Israel

Shaked, Haim. “Parental Participation Fees in School Expenses in Israel”. International Journal of Educational Management, 30.1 (2015).

 

URL: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IJEM-09-2014-0127

 
Abstract

Purpose

Many countries throughout the world provide all children with free education. However, sometimes there are user charges in publically-funded schools worldwide. This study aims to explore parental participation fees in school expenses in Israel, depicting the current situation and analyzing its implications.

Design/methodology/approach

Public documents from Israel were explored, such as guidelines of the CEO of the Ministry of Education, laws, court rulings, publications of the Central Bureau of Statistics, reports of State Comptroller and reports of various committees. Document analysis was a three-stage process – condensing, coding and categorizing. The analysis was based on interpretation of the documents collected, attempting to detect explicit and implicit meanings concerning the topic at hand.

Findings

Findings show that the Israeli policy in regard to parental payments has three main characteristics: (1) high basic payments; (2) payments for learning activities; and (3) insufficient enforcement.

Practical implications

According to the findings of this study, it would be advisable to re-examine the Israeli policy in regard to school charges that parents are required to pay.

Originality/value

There is not much research to be found on the subject of parental participation fees in school expenses. The findings of this study expand the limited knowledge existing on this topic.

 

 

 

Research Paper: Sayag and Zussman, Distribution of Rental Assistance Between Tenants and Landlords: The Case of Students in Central Jerusalem

Sayag, Doron, and Noam Zussman. “The Distribution of Rental Assistance Between Tenants and Landlords: The Case of Students in Central Jerusalem.” Discussion Paper No. 2015.1 (February 2015), Bank of Israel Research Department(41 pp).

 

URL: http://www.boi.org.il/he/Research/DocLib/dp201501e.pdf (PDF)

Abstract

Students living in rental apartments in central Jerusalem were provided grants in 2006–11, in order to encourage urban renewal. This led to a marked increase in the number of students in the area. This study examined the distribution of the benefit between the tenants and the landlords. It relied predominantly on rental advertisements as well as actual rents from 2000–2012, and on administrative data of the rent paid by grant recipients. The research method was based on hedonic estimations of the rent using a difference-in-differences method—the rent in the center of the city during the grants period compared with the periods before and after, vis-à-vis that difference in similar neighborhoods (including adjacent to the city center) during those periods. The research indicates—subject to the assumption that actual rents and prices quoted in rental notices moved together—that in the periods around the start of the grant program and around its cancellation, the share of the grants reaching the recipients’ landlords ranged from one-fifth to two-fifths. The grants led to an increase in rents in the center of the city for nonrecipients as well, so that the overall additional rent is equivalent to four-fifths of the grant amounts. These rates are within the broad range of findings worldwide.

 

 

Conference paper: Moskovich, Ramon’s Leadership in the new Israeli Labor Union

Moskovich, Yaffa. “Ramon’s Leadership in the new Israeli Labor Union: The Histadrut.” European Conference on Management, Leadership & Governance (November 2015).

 
URL: http://search.proquest.com/openview/d52d59af091005feb53467157ab3e094/1
 
Abstract

In Israel, the old Histadrut, or organization of trade unions, was founded as a welfare agency, it employed about one third of the labor force, and it was the dominant health-service provider, primarily funded by insurance premiums. As a socialist entity, the Histadrut was linked politically and economically to the Labor Party, which helped fund it while in power. The old Histadrut was managed on a political basis, and suffered from organizational decline, including huge debts and economic bankruptcy in most of its institutions and assets. In 1994, a new leader, Haim Ramon, was elected to run the organization. Acting against union members, Ramon transformed the Histadrut into a confederation of autonomous labor unions, selling off Histadrut enterprises and assets to private investors, and severing all political ties. This paper demonstrates the unusual union leadership style of Ramon, who downsized, weakened, and destroyed the Israeli union, while most union leaders act to empower their organization.