PALESTINIAN SOCIETY - Fafo

she rate hislher influence within the community? What are hislher
attitudes to the generation -and to the prevalence - of socioeconomic
inequalities?
Elements of Socioeconomic Differentiation
in the West Bank, Gaza and Arab Jerusalem
Twa properties are considered to be vital indicators of social status.
First, two major educational shifts have occurred (see also chapter 5,
on Education). In the late 1950s and -60s free and universal public
education became available to camp populations and to villagers. In
the mid 1970s and earl y -80s free university education also came
within reach of more disadvantaged sections of the urban and rural
population. While education in earlier times for economic reasons
was confined to the higher social strata, which were in a position to
send their children abroad, free and universal education now became
relatively accessible to all categories of the population .
. Educational status is measured here by an index combining
information on leve! and length of education. This combination
facilitates a necessary distinction between HHs with various categories
of primary education (primary- preparatory-, or kuttab levels)S, of
which three in ten have had up to five years of education, while seven
in ten have attended school for more than five years. All in all, one in
ten HHs have acquired a higher university degree. The largest
category (six in ten) have upper middle (secondary) education. One in
ten have lower midd le (primary) education and two in ten report no
education at al1.6
Secondly, various developments and the enhanced availability of
public education has given rise to new kinds of occupations: professional
and semi-professional employment outside the agrarian system.
The dwindling number of peasant workers, who have steadily
abandoned their farms under the pull of wage labour, has left the role
of agricuIture increasingly marginalized. With increased wage labour
opportunities, the income of hitherto poor peasants has increased,
redefining their status compared with the formerprivileged economic
position of land-owners.
Different "productive" roles in a society are generally considered
as being of different functional significance to society, and thus to the
attainment of a higher or lower degree of prestige. The complexity of
the Palestinian labour market, together with limitations on geographical
mobility, complicate status ascription by reference to the present
occupation of the HH. Aiming to differentiate between different
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