Marx to the contrary, is not created by the rural numb and br

dumb. This is true in even advanced countries, and it is a hun- br

dred times truer in societies in which backward, conservative, br

feudal members of rural areas are suddenly thrown into the br

open, liberal, modern world of the city. When the Arab was br

exclusively an agricultural worker, he remained in his village. br

Mornings he awoke in his village; during the day he worked in br

his village; and as the sun set, he slept in his village. His world br

was circumscribed by it, his thoughts and actions molded by it br

and its hamulla heads. No agitator showed his head there for fear br

of losing it, and the ignorant Israeli Arab of 1948 had his wife br

(or wives), his children, his sheep, his field, his religion. Those, br

for him, were all that he needed, and he fully expected that his br

son would follow his life-style exactly, just as he had followed his br

father’s, who had followed his father’s.

But Israeli society could not be kept away. The growth of br

urban industry called for hands, laborers. The pay offered was br

far better than what might have been earned in the village, and br

gradually—and then not so gradually—the Arab began to leave br

each morning to work in Tel Aviv or Hadera or Haifa or br

Netanya. Today, well over 50 percent of Israel’s Arabs work in br

towns—Jewish towns and cities. They see a different life-style, br

one that is quicker, more exciting. They see the stores and the br

clothing and the appliances. They see the women in short skirts br

and skimpy halters. The conflict between conservative and re- br

ligious values and modern ones begins. The traditional value br

givers, the hamulla heads, are undermined. Moreover, as the op- br

portunity for employment outside the villages grows, the power br

and authority of the father diminishes. This is true even when br

the son is not an intellectual but merely makes more money than br

his father, thanks to a job in the Jewish city. How much more so br

for the high school graduate, for the university student, whose dis- br

may at his father’s backwardness is reinforced by contempt for br

the corruption of the hamulla heads and deep shame at the read- br

iness of the old generation to sell the national heritage for the br

pottage of Israeli lentils.

Today, under the impact of Israeli-induced modernization, br

there is a steady trend from the villages to the towns and cities. br

Probably some 40 percent of Israel’s Arabs are now urban br

dwellers. Of course, in the cities the radicalization is even more br