A Question about Class

Submitted by Edward Halper (United States), May 4, 2010 at 18:47

"Families with the means to do so fled danger. When agricultural tenants heard that their landlords would be punished, they worried about being expelled and preempted by abandoning the land."

Mostly it would have been the upper and middle classes who were able to flee. At that time tenant farmers would have been middle class.

The descendants of those who did not flee now inhabit Israel. Thus, the descendants of those too poor to flee now have a much higher standard of living than the descendants of their social and economic superiors, and they enjoy the freedoms and opportunities of a democratic state.

I'm wondering whether some part (how much?) of Palestinian resentment against Israel derives from Palestinians who are not Israeli citizens seeing what was once the Arab underclass prospering in Israel. This and their knowledge that they could themselves have enjoyed these benefits are obstacles to any Palestinians engaging in any real negotiations.

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