The history of Israel's relationship with its Palestinian-Arab minority during the founding decades, from 1948 to 1968, is often portrayed as a story of formal citizenship that concealed large-scale, state-sanctioned oppression under military rule. This article excavates an untold history of employment affirmative action for Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel during these two decades which does not fit neatly into this story. Drawing on original archival research, it reveals that, during Israel's founding decades, officials adopted hiring quotas for unskilled Arab workers and for educated Arabs; requirements and incentives for hiring Arabs in government offices, Jewish businesses, and organizations; earmarked jobs and established vocational training courses for the Arab population. It demonstrates that interests in safeguarding Jewish control and economic stability aligned with egalitarian aspirations, and motivated state officials to adopt measures that promoted the inclusion of the Arab population in the workforce, albeit on unequal terms. Furthermore, these measures were part of a transformation of the state's attitude towards Arab citizens, from strict military control to a regime of “hierarchical inclusion” entailing gradual integration into the Israeli economy — mostly though its lower tiers and with a second-class status. Tracing the use of these mechanisms, not then called affirmative action but recognizable as such today, to this period of subjected population management, complicates our understanding of both this chapter in Israel's history and of affirmative action more broadly.

中文翻译：

---

等级包容：以色列为阿拉伯公民采取平权行动的不为人知的历史（1948-68 年）

从 1948 年到 1968 年，以色列在建国几十年间与其巴勒斯坦-阿拉伯少数民族的关系历史经常被描绘成一个正式公民身份的故事，在军事统治下隐藏了大规模的、国家认可的压迫。本文挖掘了这两个十年中为以色列的巴勒斯坦阿拉伯公民采取的就业平权行动的不为人知的历史，这与这个故事并不完全吻合。根据最初的档案研究，它揭示了在以色列建国的几十年里，官员们对非熟练的阿拉伯工人和受过教育的阿拉伯人采用了招聘配额；在政府办公室、犹太企业和组织中雇用阿拉伯人的要求和激励措施；为阿拉伯人口指定工作岗位并开设职业培训课程。它表明，维护犹太人控制和经济稳定的利益与平等主义愿望相一致，并促使国家官员采取措施，促进阿拉伯人口融入劳动力市场，尽管条件不平等。此外，这些措施是国家对阿拉伯公民态度转变的一部分，从严格的军事控制到“等级包容”的制度，需要逐步融入以色列经济——主要是通过较低的阶层和二等地位。将这些机制的使用（当时不称为平权行动，但在今天可以识别）追溯到这一时期的人口管理，使我们对以色列历史上的这一章和更广泛的平权行动的理解变得复杂。