Arab Labor

In the early decades of Jewish resettlement in Palestine, Jewish agricultural settlements relied heavily on wage labor from neighboring Arab villages.[1] A division existed between Jewish farm owners and Arab wage workers, a structure that young Jewish immigrants influenced by Zionist and socialist ideas challenged — they sought work on Jewish farms as part of building a self-sustaining Jewish society and economy.[1]

The term avoda ivrit ("Hebrew labor") came into common use during the Second Aliyah (1904–1914), a wave of immigration that brought approximately 40,000 Jews to Ottoman Palestine.[2] New arrivals sought plantation work, but plantation owners preferred Arab agricultural workers, whom they regarded as both cheaper and more experienced.[2] Advocates of Hebrew labor connected Jewish employment in manual work with national revival and the creation of a new Jewish character — it was presented simultaneously as an employment principle and a national ideal.[2] David Ben-Gurion encapsulated that vision when he declared that Jewish labor was "not a means but a sublime end"; around 1920 he called for Jewish labor throughout the economy.[2]

Within Labor Zionism, the ideological foundations of the Hebrew labor doctrine were laid by thinkers including Nachman Syrkin, who advocated socialist Jewish settlement employing Jewish laborers only.[3] Both Syrkin and Ber Borochov believed that the capitalist Rothschild settlements, which hired Arab workers, could undermine the entire Jewish enterprise.[3] Before the Second Aliyah, the indigenous Arab population had generally cooperated with the small number of Jewish settlements; the increased Jewish presence and the policies of Second Aliyah settlers changed that relationship and contributed to Arab hostility.[3]

Under the British Mandate, the Jewish and Arab economies grew increasingly separate, with a powerful Histadrut — the General Federation of Jewish Workers, founded in December 1920 — dominating the Jewish sector.[2][4] Yishuv institutions pursued Jewish employment as part of developing a Jewish productive workforce, and the Histadrut leadership pressed for exclusively Jewish labor in the Jewish-owned economy, arguing that Arab workers had employment opportunities in government services and Arab enterprises.[1] Left-wing groups, by contrast, opposed the demand for 100% Jewish labor and called for closer cooperation with Arab workers.[1]

An early exception to this trend of separation was a railroad workers' union including both Jews and Arabs, founded in 1919 and later expanded to include postal and telegraph workers.[1] The Mandatory government recognized exclusive Jewish labor in Jewish-funded enterprises, while Yishuv organizations campaigned for it and Arab leaders at times called for boycotts of Jewish goods and services.[5] The worsening security situation in the late 1920s and the second half of the 1930s accelerated the separation of the two economies and reduced Arab labor in the Jewish sector.[5]

Wage disparities accompanied this separation. Jewish workers in agriculture earned generally about 25% more than Arab workers during the Mandate period, within a labor system in which the Jewish community maintained substantial internal autonomy over labor relations and wages.[1] Ben-Gurion acknowledged the cost differential before the Palestine Royal Commission in January 1937, describing the situation plainly as "a case of dear labor and cheaper labor."[6] He simultaneously proposed an alternative model: "We wanted economic co-operation not on the lines of Jewish capital and Arab labor, but we wanted co-operation of Jewish capital and Arab capital, Jewish labor and Arab labor."[6]

The 1930 Hope Simpson Report blamed Jewish labor policy for unemployment in the Arab sector, noting that Arab farmers displaced by Jewish land purchases could not find work in Jewish enterprises.[2] The Shaw Commission, which preceded Hope Simpson's inquiry, had focused on Arab apprehensions about Jewish labor practices and land purchases; Sir John Hope Simpson subsequently concluded that roughly 30% of the Arab population was already landless.[3] The October 1930 Passfield White Paper recommended halting Jewish immigration if it prevented Arabs from obtaining employment and curtailing Jewish land purchases — a policy that Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald publicly repudiated in 1931.[3]

Despite the formal preference for Hebrew labor, economic pressures moderated ideological commitments. As Jewish immigration increased and new arrivals took up skilled work beyond agriculture, Arab labor was used in agriculture and construction.[3] The Jewish Virtual Library characterizes the period as a sustained tension between national and economic interests, with economic considerations often prevailing, moderated by political pressure from both sides.[5]

The Histadrut was created in 1920 as the General Federation of Jewish Workers in Israel and served as the primary representative of Jewish labor in Palestine.[3][4] Its role extended well beyond trade unionism: it operated enterprises and provided social services, functioning as a broad economic and social institution within the Yishuv.[3]

In the early years of Israeli statehood, the Palestine Labor League continued trade-union work for Arab workers in cooperation with the Histadrut.[1] Arab workers could enter the Jewish economy on the same pay and conditions as Jewish workers and use labor exchanges in the allocation of work.[1] In November 1952 the Histadrut Council voted to open its Trade Union Department to Arab workers on a basis of complete equality, including full rights in provident funds and mutual-aid institutions; a special section for Arab workers followed at the end of 1953.[1]

Sources differ on when full Arab membership formally began. Encyclopedia.com records a February 1959 Histadrut Council decision to admit Arabs and members of other minority communities as full members.[1] It reports Arab membership rising from 6,427 in 1958 to 31,254 in 1969, or from 9,956 to 50,446 when housewives were included. Counting members and dependents, coverage rose from 21,534, or 10.1% of the Arab population, to 118,098, or 29%.[1] The Library of Congress country study instead says the Histadrut had accepted Arabs as full members since 1969.[3] The Histadrut's name changed in 1966 to reflect its representation of all workers, including non-Jews, and it was renamed the New Histadrut in 1996.[4]

After Israel's founding, the Hebrew labor ideal began to fade as Arabs entered the Histadrut and received social benefits alongside Jewish workers.[2] The sectoral distribution of Arab labor shifted markedly over the following decades. Agriculture accounted for 50% of Arab employment in 1955, compared with 36% in industry and construction and nearly 14% in services; by the early 1980s agriculture had fallen to under 12%, while industry and construction had risen to 45% and services to close to 43%.[3] The shift away from agriculture is linked in the Library of Congress study to land expropriation and workers' movement into other sectors.[3]

Despite integration into the labor market, Arab workers remained concentrated largely in construction and services, near the bottom of the wage scale.[2] A 2009 comparison from Israel's Commission for Equal Employment Opportunities illustrated persistent gaps: 57.9% of Jewish women and 21% of Arab women were employed.[2]

The Commission for Equal Employment Opportunities addressed a discrimination case in 2009 involving forty Arab Israel Railways employees dismissed for not having served in the Israel Defense Forces. The workers had served as lookouts at level crossings in jobs not involving weapons.[2] The commission submitted an amicus curiae brief arguing the dismissals were discriminatory and illegal, and the court accepted the commission's professional opinion.[2]

Kibbutzim and moshavim, originally committed to exclusively Jewish labor principles, moved away from those principles after 1967. Kibbutzim increasingly hired outside workers in the 1980s, often Arabs or Oriental Jews from nearby development towns, while moshavim similarly came to rely on outside — particularly Arab — labor after 1967.[3]

Following Israel's victory in the Six-Day War, day laborers from the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and Gaza became increasingly important to Israel's economy, supplying as much as 30% of the workforce in some spheres.[3] By the mid-1970s, Arabs from Israel and the territories together provided nearly one-quarter of Israel's factory labor and approximately half the workers in construction and service industries.[3] This integration represented a substantial economic interdependence between Israel and the territories, even as it remained concentrated in lower-wage sectors.

Arab Labor (עבודה ערבית, Avoda Aravit) is a Hebrew- and Arabic-language comedy-drama created and written by Sayed Kashua for Keshet and Channel 2.[7] The series was produced by Dani Paran and centers on Amjad Alian, an Arab journalist, husband, and father of two whose central aspiration is to integrate into Israeli-Jewish society.[8] The show is partly based on Kashua's personal experiences and incorporates self-criticism directed at both Jewish and Arab society.[8] The Jewish Review of Books describes it as Kashua's "wicked satire of Israeli-Arab life."[9]

The recurring cast defines the show's domestic and social world. Bushra, played by Clara Khoury, is Amjad's wife and a social worker who frequently serves as the family's voice of reason, often criticizing Amjad's efforts to assimilate.[8] Amjad's father, Abu Amjad, is played by Salim Dau, while his Jewish friend Meir teaches him social conventions and neighbor Nathan, played by Dov Navon, joined the cast in season two.[8]

The series' use of language was one of its most distinctive features. A Walla review described Arab Labor as the first predominantly Arabic-spoken series to air in Channel 2 prime time and said it brought the life of an Arab family to a mainstream Jewish-Israeli audience.[10] Keshet added subtitles in spoken Arabic to help Arabic-speaking viewers follow the dialogue.[7] The decision prompted disagreement: producer Dani Paran considered the subtitles unnecessary and objected to what he saw as political symbolism, while Jafar Farah of the Mossawa Center welcomed the decision but argued Arabic subtitles should accompany Hebrew-language broadcasts more broadly.[7] Kashua supported the spoken-Arabic subtitles, arguing that formal written Arabic could feel jarring alongside the characters' spoken dialect and that some viewers were less comfortable reading Hebrew.[7]

The show's premiere year is inconsistently reported across sources: EDB labels the series as a 2007 production, while a Calcalist article states it launched in 2008.[11][12] The available sources do not resolve that discrepancy.

The series used plotlines involving mainstream Israeli institutions and cultural expectations to examine stereotypes and the question of belonging.[8] In one season-three storyline, Amjad enters the Big Brother house to challenge a neighbor's belief that Arabs lower apartment values, but is asked to conceal his Arab identity as part of a task.[8] Other storylines address his daughter's place in Jewish education, Memorial Day observance, racism, and an attempt to adapt a Passover Seder for Eid al-Adha.[8]

Season two brought the series into territory its Walla reviewer described as brave and genuinely controversial, including an Arab family's experience during the Gaza war, Independence Day, and a Nakba Day episode.[10] The reviewer praised the way comedy and self-deprecating humor carried its criticism of discrimination and inequality, though he also found the season finale predictable and some storylines implausible.[10] The fourth season placed Amjad in media consulting, introduced a pregnancy storyline, and saw him accidentally join the leaders of the Jerusalem tent protest.[13] Mako's episode archive records the fourth season as airing from July 9 to September 14, 2013, with episode titles including "Pregnancy," "Identity," "Home of Meir," and "Birth."[14]

Season two averaged an 18.5% rating and approximately 475,000 viewers per episode.[15] A Walla review of that season reported a 20% weekly viewing share, with one episode — featuring an Arab girl singing "Song of Comradeship" over black-and-white images of refugees from 1948 — reaching a 24% rating.[10]

At the Television Academy awards for 2012, presented in January 2013, Arab Labor 3 won five prizes: Best Comedy Series, Best Comedy Series Script for Sayed Kashua, Best Direction in a Comedy Series for Shay Capon, Best Comedy Actor for Norman Issa, and Best Comedy Actress for Clara Khoury.[16] The series also received Television Academy recognition in an earlier award year, with wins for comedy series, actress, and comedy-series script.[13]

A Keshet-commissioned survey found differences between Jewish viewers who had watched the show and those who had not: 27% of men who had not watched said they disliked hearing Arabic in the street, compared with 18% of male viewers; 62% of female viewers agreed their children could study with Arabs, compared with 53% of women who had not watched.[17] The reporting itself cautioned that it was difficult to determine whether viewers already held more favorable views before watching or whether the comedy changed their attitudes, and Kashua himself questioned whether the differences were related to the show.[17]

The history of Arab labor in the Jewish and Israeli economies is politically and historically contested across several dimensions. Accounts of Labor Zionist policy toward Arab workers, the exclusion of Arab labor from Jewish enterprises, wage competition, and the relationship between land purchases and Arab unemployment reflect different emphases in different sources and periods.[3][1][5] The 1937 Palestine Royal Commission testimony represents Ben-Gurion's political and economic arguments before a British inquiry rather than an independent finding about labor conditions or the extent of actual Jewish-Arab economic cooperation.[6]

The Hope Simpson Report's attribution of Arab unemployment to Jewish labor policy is one side of a complex historical argument: the same period saw the Histadrut opposing wage discrimination against Arabs by the Mandate government and left-wing Yishuv groups calling for closer Arab-Jewish labor cooperation.[2] Claims about equal pay and conditions after statehood, as reported by Encyclopedia.com, are source-specific and should not be generalized to every employer, occupation, or period.[1] The survey comparing attitudes of Arab Labor viewers and non-viewers cannot establish that watching the series caused attitudinal differences, as the viewers may have held those views before watching.[17]