ABSTRACT
Population changes and political developments altered the emerging society in Israel by radically transforming its composition and redefining the basis of power. Ethnic divisions within Jewish and Arab populations are social constructions, formed from very different sources, and are differentially linked to political, economic, and social factors. Many of the developments within the Arab sector that have benefited the welfare of that population have been an indirect consequence of changes in the Jewish sector. Yet ethnic differences have characterized the social life and demographic changes in Israel, despite ethnic integration into the national society and polity. Nation-building in the ideological and policy contexts of Israeli society is expected to remove the diversity of ethnic origins, as new forms of national Israeli loyalty emerge, focusing solely on Jewish people-hood. Jewish ethnic differentiation in Israel reflects a combination of social and cultural origins of immigrant groups and the effects of Israeli social conditions.
