ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I will investigate the last of the three cases where a pattern of ethnic segregation and stratification has been established in modern times and persists still today. This case is Israel – a nation state which was established in 1948 on the explicit basis of ethnic criteria. If we look at socio-economic development, the comparatively young history of this state was a big success: 1 in 2012, Israel’s per capita was 31,000 $ (PPP), 27th in the world; it had a diversified, open and competitive economy; it had experienced (with some interruptions) high economic growth since 1952; its population increased from 800,000 at the time of the foundation of the state in 1948 to nearly 8 million in 2012; and it also has a strong democracy with free press and elections. Yet, Israel is also a state which, since the Second World War, has been involved, more often than any other country around the world, in violent conflicts (including seven recognized wars) with its internal minorities and with its neighbour states; and it transgresses continuously internationally recognized human rights and has neglected several hundred UN resolutions to better treat its minorities and the populations of the occupied territories and (today) the autonomous Palestinian regions, the West Bank and Gaza.
