Book Review: Higher Education and the Palestinian Minority in Israel by Khalid Arar and Kussai Haj-Yehia, Palgrave Macmillan (US), 2016

• Main Author: Bogdan Florian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: National University of Political Science and Public Administration, Bucharest 2016-10-01
• Series: Romanian Journal of Society and Politics
• Online Access: http://rjsp.politice.ro/sites/default/files/10.%20florian.pdf

For both Prof. Arar and Haj-Yehia the study of education related topics in the context of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel has been a career guiding theme. Their previous research projects and publications have touched on various dimensions of this issue, mainly emphasizing issues such as access to education, but also documentation of migration for study relation purposes of members of this community. Their latest book, “Higher Education and the Palestinian Arab Minority in Israel”, published in 2016 by Palgrave Macmillan, can be described as a synthesis of previous research and, at the same time, an argument for supporting access to education for underrepresented groups. From the prologue even of the book the authors state their objective clearly: “to raise pertinent questions concerning the dual marginality of Palestinian Arab minority in Israel (PAMI), […] in Israel’s HE system and employment market” (p. 1). The book is structured in seven chapters and an Epilogue, starting with general historical information about the PAMI and the formation of the state of Israel and ending with policy proposals to widen access to education for members of the PAMI minority. The narrative follows a classical structure, with each chapter approaching a different dimension of the more general topics of access to education, outcomes of education on the labor market and finally policy evaluation and proposals for improvement of both. Using data and research results from both quantitative and qualitative previous studies, the authors argue that the existence of numerous hurdles hampering access to higher education, in particular, foster further inequalities on the labor market for members of the PAMI community