A model of multidimensional segregation in the Arab Ghetto in Tel Aviv-Jaffa

Segregation is studied as a multidimensional characteristic of individual behaviour in social space. It is argued that in a globalising world, homology among residential, territorial (forms of regionalising daily life) and interactive (forms of developing social networks) segregations cannot be taken for granted. The study shows that even in the highly segregated case of Arabs resident in Jaffa, the different dimensions of segregation only partially correlate, and they are explained by different mechanisms of exclusion. The results of the study suggest that structural constraints impact on ghettoisation of Arabs in Jaffa, but at the same time it is shown that Arabs respond differentially to these constraints. Four types of segregation are noted: (i) the majority, who are segregated in all three dimensions (residential, territorial and interactive); (ii) a small minority who succeeded in forming desegregated daily activity spaces and interethnic social networks regardless of their levels of residential segregation; (iii) those who failed to transform their desegregated daily activity spaces into interethnic social networks and (iv) those who succeeded in developing interethnic networks within the residential space of the ghetto. The analysis highlights the double marginalisation of Arab females, who are restricted to poor residential spaces by state and municipal renewal policies and to segregation in everyday life activity spaces by Arab males.