PALESTINIAN SOCIETY - Fafo

economic trends, invoking il greaterpart of youngpeople to seek urban
wage labour, who are thus . freed from the control of landowners or
rural notables. In addition the enhanced availability of public education
has given rise to professional and serm-professional employment
outside the agrarian system, leaving the role of agnculture increasingly
marginalized.
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Parallei to this "leveIling" of the class structure of rural areas, a
modification in the social composition of urban areas is occurring. A
process of emigration of the landed elite and '( more recently) professional
and middle classes has been ment ion ed above,' although the
ratio of emigrating elites tb emigrating lower strata is unkno\\in. The
landed elite has, nonetheless, partly been replaced by new rankS of
successful businessmen and professionals moving from villages to
towns.
The factors contributing to thelransformation of rural areas -new
possibilities of wage labour in the cities, remittances and access to
education -naturally also affect life in urban areas, opening up as they
do possibilities for economic (though not necessarily soeial) mobility
for more deprived groups in urban areas.
A process of "ruralization" of townships, an exclusive West Bank
phenomenon, should also be noted. This process refers to an increasing
number of rural residents seeking employment and/or services in
urban areas and ultimately establishing residence there. Nevertheless
most Palestinians living in the West Bank today still reside in rural
districts, and cannot be characterized as living in a peasant society; fhat
is a society deriving its livelihood from agriculture and being organized
socially around the family farm. West Bank townships, in
themselves dominated by small trade and small workshops with a
minor manufacturing sector, likewiseconstitute regional markets and
administrative service centres for their rural hinterland.
Finally, the similarity may also reflect the strong degree of urbanrural
interdependence, as is c1early demonstrated by the even� differ-
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ential growth rates of towns and villages.
Soeial Status and 'Eeonomie Wealth
So far t�e education and occupation of the HH have been applied as
indicators to ascribe HH "aggregate" soeioeconomic status. At the
same time, education and occupation can also be regarded as vehicles
for economic mobility. Although we cannot here in any way offer a
complete analysis of social mobility among Palestinian HHs, it may
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