ISTR Sixth International Conference Toronto, Canada / July 11-14, 2004 Contesting Citizenship and Civil Society in a Divided World

	Conference Homepage
	Abstracts

Searching For Social and Economic Inclusion: Civic Associations in Israel 1948-1980
by
Paula Kabalo
Ben Gurion University

A recent study on the Israeli third sector describes it as an “organizing principle” (Gidron et al, 2003 (and an “excellent way to examine Israeli society from a new and unexplored angle”. The study follows a series of findings regarding the scope and structure of Israeli third sector, Most of them relying on the ICTR (Israeli Center for Third sector Research) data base covering data on the sector since the early 1980’s.

These recent findings provide us with a better understanding of the Israeli social, political and economic conditions and trends during the period under consideration, and certainly offer a “new lens” (following the title of the latest article on the topic) from which we could better explore Israeli society and polity.

Following that assertion, the present study wishes to fill the gap regarding previous years, and demonstrate the role of the third sector in Israel as a means for achieving economic and social inclusion in a society under change and transition. This is illustrated through historical records that include data on the scope and structure of civic associations in Israel during the first three decades of independence, thos decades that are not covered by ICTR’s database.

These ‘formative years’ were years of radical social, cultural and economic change in Israel.

Naturally enough, and following E. Shils’ work “on the comparative study of the new states” (Shils, 1963), those years experienced extensive fluctuations regarding ethnic relations, cultural conflicts, economic crisis and the shaping of relations between state and civil society.

Those were the years in which Israel was formulated and crystallized into a sovereign state and society and new immigrants searched for economic and cultural inclusion. At the same time the legislative framework of Israel during the beginning of that era was a constitutional democracy with ‘restrictive orientations’ (emergency rules, high censorship, military rule of Arab settled territories, etc.) (Eisenstadt, 2003:207). This ‘restricted democracy’, excluded out of the central consensual democratic scene several groups that were considered a threat to the state, to its political government or its national consensus.

The Israeli democracy was, thus, followed by a low level of tolerance towards the right of association and the right of free expression regarding groups that were not considered part of the central consensus. (D. Horowitz & M. Lissak, 1990:192-193,197).

Following these observations we can easily assume that in such a defensive atmosphere, there was not much place for independent, autonomous civic associations and that this field of action has probably developed much later as a result of the growing flexibility and pluralism of Israeli democracy. But this hypothesis as I will show here is challenged by the actual data pointing out the establishment of hundreds of new associations per year, during the more ‘restrictive’ ‘formative’ first decade rather than later on, through the more institutionalized period (during the 1960’s and 1970’s).

Those associations, as I wish to demonstrate in this paper, form a suitable case study for illustrating the “civil society argument” as discussed by M. Walzer, R. Putnam, Foley and Edwards as many others (Walzer, 1992; Putnam 2000; Foley & Edwards, 1996)) regarding the contribution of networks of civil associations to the promotion of stability and effectiveness of the democratic polity and social order through both its “external effects “ on the larger polity and its “internal effects” on participants themselves.

As occurs from this newly discovered archival data, it appears that the Israeli civil associations played a meaningful role in the definition of clear cut demarcation lines for state intervention in civic affairs and thus contributed to the newly established Democracy. At the same time, they offered a track for social inclusion. Some of the initiatives led eventually to policy making on the national level, others created a public discourse on otherwise ignored subjects and others stimulated the sense of belonging between the new state and its citizens.

The types of organizations vary in their goals and structure: religious welfare foundations, professional interest groups, immigrant self-help associations, cultural organizations and neighborhood committees. All emerged during those years in spite of the lack of economic and human sources and the general official tendency to discourage the initiatives.

These new findings create the foundations for a new understanding of the role of the third sector in Israel and at the same time forms a ground for a further discussion on the “civil society argument” especially under the circumstances of social transition and political change.

Analyzing the role of civic organizations in the process of state and nation building from a historical disciplinary point of view provides us with the ability to evaluate the activity and achievements of the organizations in retrospect. Such an angle could hopefully contribute to a wider understanding of the roles of the third sector under transitional circumstances in the present.

List of reference Eisenstadt, S. N. (2003) Jewish Civilization: The Jewish Historical experience and its manifestation in Israeli society in a comparative perpective (heb), The Ben-Gurion Research Center, Sde Boker.

Foley, M. & Edwards B. (1996), ‘The Paradox of Civil Society’, Journal of Democracy 7:3 p. 38-52 Gidron, B. et al. (2003) ‘Through a new lens: the third sector and Israeli society’, Israel Studies, spring 2003: 20-59 Horowitz D. & Lissak M. (1990), Trouble in Utopia: The overburdened polity of Israel (heb), Am-Oved, Tel aviv Putnam R. (2000) Bowling Alone: the collapse and revival of American community, Touchstone, New York.

Shils E. (1963) 'On the comparative study of the new states', In Geertz C. (ed), Old Societies and New States, N.Y & London:1-26.

Walzer M. (1992) ‘ the Civil Society Argument’, in: C. Mouffe (ed) (1992), Dimensions of Radical Democracy: Pluralism, Citizernship, Community ,London:Verso, p. 89-107

Date received: September 24, 2003

Copyright © 2003 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # call-88.