Polarized Labor Integration: East Jerusalem Palestinians in the City's Employment Market (Summary)

Conclusions

A spatial analysis of the employment of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem across several phases during the period 1967-2015, with special attention to the past decade (2001-2015), offers significant new insights regarding the profile of Palestinians employed in the city and polarized yet reciprocal economic relations between the city’s two population groups – relations that have continuously been forming and falling apart over the years. Examining where each population group is concentrated in the city’s labor market reveals that the overall picture has not changed substantially over time. It has remained essentially stable for nearly five decades.

Recommendations

Positive changes along these lines require employee power relations that are not overtly and immutably biased in one direction, with Arabs filling all the lower-ranking positions and Jews holding managerial and supervisory positions. In terms of reciprocal relations between the two population groups, the key issue is the status of Jewish and Palestinian workers who share a workspace: Do they meet as administrator and cleaner, or as two physicians in a clinic? As noted, our comparison across various periods of time indicates that the former situation is still the more prevalent. Likewise, it is important to break the glass ceilings that prevent the promotion of Palestinians to managerial and higher-paid positions.