ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how laws failure to account for political geography plays a crucial role in perpetuating the educational inequality between Arab-Jews and European-Jews in Israel. It desegregates schools from within the current system of local government, which is based on an unequal division of political space, is an exercise in futility. The chapter deals only with ethnic segregation in Jewish public schools, ignoring altogether the institutionally mandated segregation between Arab and Jewish schools. Segregation between Jewish and Arab schools is desired not only by the Jewish majority but also by the Arab minority that attempts to use the school system as a vehicle of cultural autonomy. No meaningful political group advocating desegregation currently exists in Israel. The chapter explores one instance in the history of ethnic relations in Israel: the integration reform—a governmental initiative intended to remedy the educational inequality between European-Jews and Arab-Jews by promoting school integration.
