Constructing Boundaries: Jewish and Arab Workers in Mandatory Palestine

Conclusion

Conclusion This study began by questioning the starting point of much Israeli historiography, by questioning the separateness and isolation of the Jewish community in Palestine, the Jewish Yishuv. The close proximity of Jews and Arabs and its impact has been overlooked by most students of the Jewish settlement. It has concerned those studying the Arab-Jewish (or Arab-Israeli) conflict, but appeared quite irrelevant for the understanding of the Jewish society "in itself." The boundaries of the Jewish settlement were accepted as a given. The very separateness of an autonomous, Jewish society, with its distinct identity, interests, and processes of consolidation, was taken as a given. And yet, how autonomous and how separate could the Jewish settlement be, a small minority lacking political sovereignty? Was there not far more interpenetration between the Jewish and Arab communities/societies than previous studies would lead us to assume? Could the Jewish settlement have developed without being deeply affected by the Arab society and economy predominant in Palestine? The complete focusing on, and into, the Jewish community as if it was secured within clear-cut, impenetrable and unrefuted boundaries, served to reinforce the self-image of the Jewish settlement-the Yishuv. Even accepting that boundaries did exist that distinguished the new Jewish community, such a focus did not lead to sufficient understanding of the formation of such boundaries. It could not shed light on the controversies and conflicts concerning boundary formation, as the boundaries themselves were taken for granted. Such a perspective was not geared to examine the impact and the long-term ramifications of Conclusion 207 such boundaries. They were conveyed as part of the basic order rather than as a negotiated and dynamic social construct. I intended to open up the issue of the autonomy and separation of the Jewish community by studying the growth of the Jewish community in a mixed town, and its activity within the town economy. I had assumed that a mixed town would provide varied opportunities for mutual relations, which would come to the fore once attention would be directed at them. I further assumed that the economy in general, and the labor market in particular, would be the sphere least easily separated and segregated, and thus most revealing of forms of interaction and cooperation. The study of Haifa's society and economy modified my expectations . The most salient trend appeared to be the initiation of separation by the Jewish community with regard to the Arab majority. Separate neighborhoods, separate communal institutions, separate economic enterprises , and separate labor organizations were on the increase, overshadowing points of contact and direct interaction. The economy was an integral part of this overall process. Rather than finding numerous expressions of joint economic activity, as r had expected, I seemed to come across a wide-ranging, pervasive attempt at separation. At the same time, the drive for economic separation was not equally shared by all segments of Haifa's population, not even by all segments of the Jewish community. While boundary building was the most salient process , it was certainly not accepted and shared by all. It was above all the project of Jewish organized labor. Arab economic elites did not seek to separate themselves from the economic growth triggered by Jewish colonization. Neither were Jewish economic elites keen on complete separation, as they also benefited from various forms of exchange of resources between Arabs and Jews. While they accepted a fair measure of separation, they had strong reservations toward the total closure demanded by organized Jewish labor. Arab workers did not want to construct boundaries. To the contrary, the expanding economy created hopes for new opportunities of employment. The evolving boundaries between the Arab and Jewish economy and labor market in Haifa were, above all, the vested interest of Jewish labor. The basic pattern that emerged from the study of Haifa's labor market was the overall, pervasive separation and boundary construction between Jews and Arabs which was pushed through by organized Jewish labor. The essence of the construction of boundaries in the economic sphere was to close the Jewish economy to Arab labor so as to protect Jevvish workers from the competition of much cheaper Arab workers. The numerous ways in which such closure was pursued, the extent to which it was achieved, 208 CONCLUSION and the implications of the dominance of closure in the relations between Jewish and Arab workers, became the heart of the story of...