ABSTRACT
The 1990s have witnessed a dramatic transformation in the structure of ethnic relations in Israel. By recognizing the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and beginning to withdraw from Palestinian territories it occupied in 1967, Israel began to emancipate the most subjugated of its ethnic groups. This about-face was all the more unexpected since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was long considered one of the world’s most intransigent. A more careful look at Israeli society would reveal, however, that Israel’s policy change on the Palestinian issue was part and parcel of a profound and wide-ranging process of economic, social, political, and cultural transformation.
