ILPC 2027

The individualisation of responsibility for economic wellbeing combined with fears of an “unproductive” workforce burdening the economy has been accompanied by welfare-to-work programmes and the dismantling of social safety nets for weaker population groups. However, this same individualisation has also nurtured a logic of meritocracy which has ostensibly opened doors to minorities. In the research I present here, I look at the implications of this individualisation as it plays out in the recruitment of Palestinian citizens of Israel, particularly in the ICT sector. Israeli companies have taken up the meritocracy mantra, and we see articles in the business press talking up the benefits of an ethnically diverse workforce. The increasing participation of this national minority in the top-end workforce is held to be a quantifiable “objective fact” indicating reduced inequality and therefore an unassailable public “good”. Briefly, more Palestinian Israelis in ICT is considered progress, and by implication it is also thought to reflect an enlightened social order which does not discriminate among citizens on the basis of their ethnic background. However, what lies behind this “objective fact” is rarely scrutinised. According to the logic of individual merit, all are equal, but this equality is located within a capitalist framework of unequal power relations, unequal property ownership and unequal access to resources. Indeed, I argue that the neoliberal framework of workforce participation limits concepts of inequality to individual discrimination, which has particular significance for a workforce that has few alternative channels for making demands, such as unions. Moreover, the integration of Israeli Palestinians in the ICT sector, as well as in welfare-to-work initiatives, is partly an attempt to redefine the normative citizen: one who works and pays taxes, and has no need of welfare or unions. Palestinian citizens are being cajoled into becoming such citizens when their starting point is already disadvantaged relative to their Jewish counterparts due to historical injustices and structural barriers. Thus, I argue, the logic of individual merit has enabled the concealment of formerly open ethnic discrimination behind a neoliberal meritocracy, and it has thereby normalised inequality. Moreover, the meritocracy narrative and the “objective fact” of increased Palestinian participation chimes with the individualism of the (Jewish) liberal left-wing since it is morally gratifying yet does not challenge relations between the two ethnic groups. This liberal left-wing, which expresses horror at the openly discriminatory laws Israel has passed in recent years, can embrace the narrative of equality based on individual merit because this narrative does not undermine the basic premises that underpin the privileges enjoyed by all Jewish Israelis regardless of their political stance. Indeed, its acceptance of these “facts” marks the limits of liberal-left thought in underpinning an emancipatory politics. To address both ethnic and class inequalities, the political left-wing must reframe the individual situation as a collective, political issue again.