Introduction.

The present report examines the main actions taken in the labor market whose effect can be described as "non-discriminatory hiring practices" and "affirmative action," with regard to three social groups whose status in the Israeli work force is especially vulnerable: Arab citizens of Israel, Ethiopian Israelis, and new immigrants from Bukhara and the Caucasus.

For the purposes of this report, we define "non-discriminatory hiring practices " as any activity designed to improve the employment opportunities of a special group: increasing representation in different sectors of the economy, improving representation in managerial positions, increasing wages and promoting employability.

The report distinguishes between two types of action: (1) direct actions, among them vocational training and micro-finance programs, employer incentives, legislation mandating fair representation, and quotas; and (2) policies that have an indirect anti- discrimination bearing, mainly development and infrastructure projects.

The organizations and programs included in the report are the ones operating on the national and regional level. In addition to these, there are numerous local initiatives pursued by local authorities and/or locally organized nonprofits, which are not included due to time and budget limitations.

The report concentrates on non-discriminatory hiring, and therefore general educational efforts, such as youth centers or university programs--as they belong to the category of affirmative action in higher education--were not included.

The absence of a political culture of affirmative action

In Israel there is no political culture of affirmative action similar to that which developed in the United States and in other countries, with regard to women, minorities and the disabled.

On one hand, and in contrast to the American history of relations between the white majority and the black minority, in Israel the debate concerning the problems of the largest minority group (aside from women), the Arab minority, has centered on national and political dimensions rather than on social and economic dimensions. The political and intellectual leadership of the Arab minority considers the goal of cultural and political autonomy to be no less important, and perhaps even more important, than the goal of increased integration into Israeli society by means of affirmative action or nondiscriminatory practices.

On the other hand, the State of Israel has bestowed a long series of benefits and preferential treatment on Jewish groups, mainly new immigrants, in areas from housing to education. Special assistance was provided not only at the stage of absorption, but also at later stages, especially for groups that found themselves on the bottom rungs of the socio-economic ladder. These include new immigrants from Arab countries, in the period following establishment of the state, and new immigrants from Ethiopia, during the last two decades. However, the low position of these groups was not perceived as the result of discrimination, but rather as the result of a failure to properly absorb them into Israeli society. Thus, actions designed for their advancement were never defined as affirmative action or as anti-discrimination measures.

This being the case, very little legislation and regulations call for affirmative action. The legal concept of affirmative action was developed mainly for women and persons with disabilities: legislation favoring women in the area of employment exists from the first years of independence, and the employment rights of the disabled have been set down in recent years. It is only in certain sectors of the economy, such as the public service sector, that one finds the terms "adequate representation" or "affirmative action" regarding groups like Arab citizens or Ethiopian Israelis. There are government programs with goals in the areas of development and employment, but these programs do not involve appropriating more resources in compensation for discrimination suffered in the past.

Generally, most of the programs in the area of employment, and especially those created in recent years, constitute part of an effort on the part of the government to increase workforce participation in Israel. This is especially true for the two main groups with low participation rates: Arabs--and especially Arab women--and ultra-Orthodox Jews.

A word about active anti-discrimination policy

At the very outset, a question needs to be asked concerning the nature and benefits of anti-discrimination policy as a strategy for increasing the participation and improving the position of minority groups in the Israeli labor market. Israel has a large variety of groups that in any other country would merit the designation, "in need of anti-discrimination measures or affirmative action": Arab citizens; immigrants from Ethiopia, the Caucasus, and Bukhara; Mizrahi Jews ; solo mothers; women; workers over the age of 50; disabled persons--and the list goes on. Indeed, this great variety has led, over the years, to the implementation of programs that could be perceived as political favoritism, because they favored one or more of the above groups over the rest. Moreover, an active anti-discrimination policy with regard to one group, for example, new immigrants, can be interpreted as exclusion towards another group, for example Arab citizens.

However, in view of the great difficulties some of these groups experience in the job market, active anti-discrimination policy may be the only strategy that has the power to effect change. As such, both anti-discrimination and affirmative action policies may involve a myriad of tactics, including increasing educational and training opportunities, adaptation of universal programs and hiring prerequisites to the needs and limitations of specific groups, increasing the access of targeted groups to the job market, raising the awareness of employers and the general public, legislation, and the setting of quotas.

We view all of these as appropriate, with the exception of quotas. This, because in addition to other well known arguments against quotas, in Israel one could end up setting a quota for each and every group--ad absurdum.

Affirmative action: an Adva anecdote 

In June 2008, a female Arab economist began to work at the Adva Center. It took Adva six months to find her. The organization was interested in hiring an Arab woman or man. It first placed an ad in the Shatil "Help Wanted" web site. Then it placed ads in Arab language newspapers, stating a preference for persons whose mother tongue was Arabic. About ten persons answered the ads, but none of them had the requisite qualifications. Then Adva made telephone calls to the academic and administrative heads of MA programs in Economics in Israeli universities, with poor results: there were very few Arab MA students to begin with. Finally, thanks to this research report, Adva learned about the Sikkuy and Mossawa projects to match job seekers with employers, and it placed ads with those organizations. Following a telephone call from Sikkuy, the woman who became an Adva economist sent her CV to the Adva Center. After an interview, she was hired, on the basis of her academic qualifications and the good impression she made at the interview.

Without Sikkuy, the Adva Center would never have found her and she would never have found Adva Center.

Methodology

The present report is based on studies and reports published by the government, by civil society organizations and by scholars, as well as on interviews with decision makers, business people and leaders of civil society organizations. In the course of preparing the report, we uncovered serious limitations regarding the accessibility of information in both the public and the private sectors. The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Employment--the main government office dealing with employment--publishes a great deal of information on program budgeting, but very little information on program implementation. The same can be said for the office of the Prime Minister. Another example: the Government Companies Authority publishes figures on the constituencies of boards of directors, but not on the constituency of rank and file employees. Moreover, figures on boards of directors give breakdowns between Jews and Arabs but do not provide information about new immigrants. Of the government corporations to which we turned for information, the only one that was willing to cooperate was the Israel Electric Company, which, it turns out, operates an affirmative action program of its own.

The private sector does not collect figures in any systematic way. It is characterized by lack of transparency, which apparently derives from lack of awareness and fear of public scrutiny. The only information available derives from activities initiated by civil society organizations engaged in monitoring. We turned to ten large and medium-sized firms with a request for information on the employment of Arabs and new immigrants: the request was ignored. Israel has no legislation mandating adequate representation , affirmative action or anti-discrimination initiatives in the private sector. Awareness of the importance of adequate representation is to be found mainly in firms that merged with or were sold to foreign companies, like HP-Indigo.