Keeping Palestinian Women in Israel on the Economic Margins
Nisaa FM:- Palestinian women citizens of Israel have one of the world’s lowest participation rates in the labor market, while their Jewish counterparts have one of the highest rates. Though Israeli government officials have publicly stated that the country needs to boost the economy of Palestinians in Israel, particularly by promoting Palestinian women’s employment, their statements have not been followed with action.
It’s not surprising that Palestinian development takes a back seat in Israeli policymaking. The minority population, which constitutes around 21 percent of Israel’s population of 8.7 million, has suffered poverty, marginalization, and discrimination at the hands of the Israeli government since the Nakba. The war on Lebanon in 2006 and the wars on Gaza in 2008 and 2014, for example, further alienated Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Palestinian women’s struggle for employment in Israel is emblematic of Israel’s systematic oppression of this minority population. Women’s low rates in the labor market are not, as is commonly assumed, simply due to “traditional” Palestinian or Muslim culture. While in the past social obstacles blocked Palestinian women from working outside the home, profound political and economic shifts in Palestinian society have contributed to further acceptance and promotion of such work. Rather, Israeli state policies toward Palestinian women workers have been central to their marginalization in production and employment.
The marginalization of Palestinian women in the Israeli labor market and the obstruction of Palestinian economic development in Israel more broadly have been core objectives of Israel since the Nakba.
After 1948, Israel adopted a capitalist economic policy aimed at integrating itself into the world economy. One of its main objectives was to absorb and employ Jewish immigrants, and this goal was realized through Palestinian dispossession. Thousands lost their land and their homes.
The 1967 war brought about fundamental changes in the Israeli economy, with an inflow of capital, investments, and aid that created many jobs. This contributed to a rise in the standard of living, and compelled Palestinian women in Israel to enter the paid labor market to secure additional resources to support their families and attempt to partake in the improved conditions.
Yet it remained difficult for Palestinian women to secure employment through the years. In the 1990s, nearly one million Jewish Russians immigrated to Israel after the Soviet Union collapsed. The majority of these immigrants held advanced degrees and obtained jobs such as physicians and nurses. Educated Arabs with similar skills were replaced. Meanwhile, unskilled Russians, especially women, were employed as cleaners and hotel and factory workers, leading to a widespread dismissal of the Palestinian women who had filled those positions for decades.
Still, Palestinian working women have been the exception rather than the rule. Though employability increases for educated women, Palestinian women’s participation in the Israeli labor market has not been commensurate with their level of education. Their participation rate is one of the lowest in the world, at around 21 percent. This figure has remained almost constant for more than two decades, while Jewish women’s rate of participation has increased during the same period - from 47 percent in 1990 to 59 percent in 2016. The current rate for Jewish women is one of the highest in the world, even surpassing that of the United States at 56 percent. While UN figures show a steady rise in women’s participation in paid work globally over the last several decades, the modest working rates for Palestinian women in Israel also tell a different story.
The rise in enrollment in all levels of education among Palestinian women in Israel demonstrates that it is not simply “Palestinian culture” or “Islam” that deters women from obtaining employment, but the Israeli state.
Israel subjects its Palestinian minority to discriminatory policies that deny them, even as Israeli citizens, many high-ranking positions, in many cases on “security” grounds. For instance, government institutions such as the Central Bank of Israel, airports, and official media rarely employ Palestinians. Further, although Israel’s Equal Opportunities Law prevents employers from discriminating against applicants based on sex, race, or religion, Palestinian women applicants face bias. A woman’s headscarf or accented Hebrew is often invoked as justification to deny them employment.
Even when Palestinian women work, they suffer a wage gap and double discrimination, as they live in a male-dominated society that also discriminates against Arabs in favor of Jews. Though Israeli law calls for equal pay at work, all women in Israel earn 15 percent less than men, and male Palestinian citizens of Israel earn half the wage of their Jewish counterparts for the same work.These various challenges compel many Palestinian women to stay at home and take care of their children rather than seek employment in the public sphere.
Source:www.maannews.net