The relative standings of four ethnic groups - Muslim Palestinians, Christian Palestinians, Asian-African Jews, European Jews -were compared, using mobility data from 1974 and 1991. The findings show that despite the lack of government support and the prevalence of inexorable discrimination against Israeli Palestinians, they have narrowed the gap with Asian-African Jews in both education and occupational prestige. This finding demonstrates that ideological and political hegemony is not always effective in improving the socio-economic standing of preferred minorities (Asian-African Jews), and that social and economic structures may counterbalance the anti-Palestinian nationalist ideology. The analysis suggests that residential and educational segregation of Palestinians protects them from direct competition with European Jews, whereas Asian-African Jews have to compete with this dominant group in schools, as well as in the labour market.

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This article adopts a `structural perspective' of earnings determinants to examine changes over time in the gender earnings gap in Israeli society. It studies the combined effect of the expansion of the services and public sector employment on the gender earnings gap, utilizing data from the 1972 and 1995 censuses in Israel. It shows that within the context of an advanced legislation system regarding women's payment and rights, Israeli women are in disadvantaged economic positions relative to men in all segments of the economy. However, Israeli women are in a relatively better economic position in 1995 than in 1972. It also shows that some segments of the economy are more `women friendly' than others. Women in the private sector experience the highest level of pay discrimination, while women in the public sector experience the lowest. Finally, it shows that pay discrimination against women is similar in both industrial sectors - service and transformative. It thus concludes that despite the impressive growth in service employment over the years, the division of the economy into public and private sectors is a more useful feature in explaining the gender earnings gap in Israel.

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