The status of Israel's Arab population in the national economy is perhaps the clearest indication of the Arabs' status in Israeli society: relative disadvantage in every economic sector compared with other social groups. This study examines their place in the economy from the establishment of the state till the end of the 1980s.

The legislative and political aspects of economic activity and the response of the Arab population over the period since statehood are closely scrutinized with both the static and dynamic elements considered and clarified.

Aziz Haidar's comprehensive approach distinguishes this study from most of its predecessors, which have dealt with specific aspects of the economic changes that affected the Arab minority, most notably the proletarization of Arab villages. Two significant and interrelated aspects necessary to an understanding of the life of the Arab minority in the state of Israel are emphasized.

The first is the limited utility of the Israeli regime's vigorous policy of supervision and control over the Arab minority - due both to contradictions in policy and to Israel's inability to control the consequences of local political and economic developments, especially since the 1967 war. The second is the veritable revolution in the Arabs' response to the pressures placed on them, including in the economic sphere, by the government.

Marked by total submissiveness during the first twenty years of statehood, the Arab community has moved over to the offensive, exerting counter-pressures to improve the situation by changing the 'rules of the game'.