Ibrahim Mahajne
Biographic Data
| ID | 4419453 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ibrahim Mahajne |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ibrahim |
| FAMILY NAME | Mahajne |
| SIGNATURE | MAHAJNE I |
| AFFILIATIONS | Zefat Academic College |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3916-6011 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 112 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 40 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Minoritized Arab social workers’ attitudes and strategies concerning welfare services for Palestinians working with Israeli security services
The research traced the attitudes of minoritized Arab social workers in Israel toward Palestinian “collaborators” with Israeli security forces and strategies that the social workers employ in interventions with them. Using a phenomenological approach, the research drew data from semi-structured in-depth interviews with 15 Arab social workers in Arab welfare bureaus in Israel. Findings The social workers voiced three main attitudes concerning thei…
The struggle for professional recognition of Bedouin social workers in Israel, graduates from Palestinian academic institutions
This qualitative study examined professional experiences of 34 female Bedouin social workers, graduates of academic institutions in Palestinian Authority territories, who were employed in Israel’s social welfare services. The research aimed:to explore their lived experiences of exclusion, professional delegitimization, and o examine the implications of such exclusion for their professional practice, identity, and well-being, within a complex cros…
Supervision of minoritized Arab social work students overshadowed by the 7 October 2023 war: Challenges and coping strategies
This study joins recent research focusing on social work’s colonial legacies and the structural implications of political violence. This approach provides us with important new directions on how to rethink and reshape social work education in contexts influenced by colonialism. The study investigated challenges faced by minoritized Arab social work students, supervised by Jewish supervisors, mainly in Hebrew-speaking Jewish practicum settings, an…
Solidarity as a value, emotion, and practice: Arab social work students’ perceptions in a multicultural society
This article explores how Arab social work students in Israel conceptualize solidarity, navigating between ethnic identity, community loyalty, and universal professional ethics. Using a phenomenological qualitative approach, 25 in-depth interviews were thematically analyzed. Findings revealed that students view solidarity as a multidimensional phenomenon, including moral value, emotional empathy, daily mutual aid, and professional identity. A dis…
Balancing acts: The intricate role of child protection officers in empowering Bedouin girls for gender equality in patriarchal families
Arab minority social workers’ interventions in taboo topics: Challenges and coping mechanisms
Arab minority social workers trained in a foreign language: Linguistic challenges and coping mechanisms
The research highlights challenges involved in ensuring professional authentication faced by social workers working in cultural minorities. The findings contribute to the knowledge corpus that discusses authentication. They describe and explain possible consequences of linguistic difficulties arising in Arab minority social workers’ work in Israel. These workers acquired their profession in a foreign language (Hebrew) but work with their native m…
Secondary traumatization of child protection officers in Bedouin society in Israel
In the Bedouin society in Israel, Child Protection Officers (CPOs) are exposed to the risk of secondary traumatization due to their work’s challenging character. They navigate through a complicated, complex field of cultural traditions and institutional structures. Protecting children at risk becomes a daunting task and often puts CPOs at high risk because of the families’ resistance. Treating difficult cases such as murder and sexual abuse leave…
Social work in a conflict-ridden zone as an opportunity for professional development: Arab social workers’ challenges in Israel overshadowed by the 7 October 2023 war
The article investigates Arab social workers’ development of intervention practices to cope with Arab service-users’ challenges in Israel, while the 7 October 2023 war ensued between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. A qualitative study conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with fifteen Arab social workers working in Arab welfare bureaus in Israel. The research revealed that the professionals addressed the service-users’ nee…
Buds of critical social work in the welfare bureaus for the minoritized Arab population in Israel
The research supplements scarce literature discussing direct critical social work intervention in the public sector. It highlights the value of minor but incremental critical practices by minoritized and underprivileged social workers in public welfare institutions. Qualitative tools elicited data from semi-structured interviews with seventeen Arab social workers employed in welfare bureaus in Israel. Buds of direct critical activity were identif…
The potential value of home visits as experienced by social workers belonging to the minoritized Arab population in Israel
The study joins the calls for the ‘authentication’ of social work interventions in ‘real-life contexts’, investigating the potential value of home visits as perceived by minority group social workers in Israel. Data were collected from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 15 Arab social workers employed by local authority welfare bureaus. Beyond the home visit’s universal potential, the interviews revealed authentic ways to utilize the home v…
Arab minority social work students face challenges in Jewish practicum settings
This article investigates the challenges faced by Palestinian minority social work students in Jewish practicum settings and the coping strategies they employ for those challenges. Qualitative research derived data from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 15 Palestinian students. Two main challenges were described: (1) insensitivity to the students’ linguistic uniqueness/difference that alienated them from Jewish professional and administrat…
Encouraging professional excellence among social workers from disadvantaged minorities: Palestinians in Israel as a case study
This article investigates the way in which disadvantaged minority social workers’ professional excellence is encouraged, drawing data from an analysis of primary documents and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 Palestinian welfare bureau managers in Israel. It finds that the Jewish voluntary sector is the sole player encouraging Palestinian minority social workers’ excellence, but its encouragement maintains the status quo regime, politi…
Service users from the Arab minority in Israel working as welfare bureau staff: The advantages of critical practice
The struggles of Arab social workers in Israel: Professional success among minority group social workers
The article investigates the scope, motivations, considerations for, and implications of minority group social workers' professional success. Data was collected with primary and secondary documents and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 Arab welfare bureaus managers in Israel. The message of "success" has almost disappeared from the relevant formal institutions. One nonprofit organization provides a role model of "learning from successes…
Service users’ complaints concerning social workers’ professional functioning: Arabs in Israel as a case study
Welfare service reforms: Arab minority welfare bureau managers assess the outcomes
Welfare bureaus constitute a safety net for the dispossessed Arab minority in Israel who are partially excluded from the state social services. The welfare bureau reforms discussed in this article are consequently crucial to improve welfare services for the underprivileged minority service users. This article partially fills a lacuna in the relevant literature by adopting a critical approach to assess the reforms' actual contributions to improvin…
The Meaning of Power for Female Arab Social Workers under the Youth Law
Israel’s Youth Law (Care and Supervision), 1960 grants social workers power, authority and responsibility to intervene to protect minors at risk. But female social workers in Israel’s Arab population function in a traditional society in which women’s power is often labelled as negative and unfeminine, and power is primarily seen as indicating masculinity. Moreover, the law is perceived as symbolising the Israeli establishment, which the Arab popu…
Addressing the Ongoing Effects of the Nakba: Experiences and Challenges that Israel’s Arab Social Workers Face
The Nakba (‘catastrophe’ in Arabic) began in 1948 with the displacement and dispossession of many Palestinians, leaving a lasting impact on Palestinian society and individual identity. To this day Palestinian social workers must address the difficulties of Palestinians deriving from the Nakba whilst they themselves contend with its ramifications. This descriptive qualitative study, conducted in 2021 using in-depth semi-structured interviews, expl…
Social Workers’ Professional Failures as Perceived by Welfare Bureau Managers within Arab Society in Israel
Social workers’ professional failures are considered inevitable occurrences. However, virtually all research on professional failure management relates to the healthcare field. The scant literature on professional failure does not give much weight to the profound implications of context on professional functioning. This pioneer study illustrates how important it is to consider the context to understand the daily workplace occurrence of social wor…
Minority Social Workers Share Their Previously Tacit Knowledge: Patterns and Importance of Sharing and the Context
The gap between fieldwork demands and academic knowledge necessitates the sharing of tacit knowledge to ensure continuity of context-appropriate professional knowledge. The research describes and explains patterns of minority social workers’ sharing of their previously tacit knowledge, the knowledge’s significance and the context where it was acquired. In data drawn from in-depth semi-structured interviews with twenty children and youth workers i…
The Arab Lecturer on a Zionist Campus: Student Practices Replicating National Hegemony
Minority groups tend to experience the academic campus as unpleasant and excluding. Relevant literature attempts to analyze the position of these groups, using terms such as 'race' and investigating how higher education institution mechanisms replicate the inequality between the minority group and the hegemonic majority population. In Israel, unresolved problems cause continuing tension between two national groups: citizens who are members of the…
Regrets among social workers in welfare bureaus: Different types and coping mechanisms
The article describes the types and strategies for dealing with professional regrets experienced by social workers. It draws data from semi-structured in-depth interviews with 21 Arab welfare bureaus social workers in Israel. Two types of professional regrets were identified: most interviewees expressed their regrets concerning non-intervention in general or not taking necessary steps for the client’s benefit. A few interviewees expressed regret …
Arab social workers navigating multiple jobs in Israel: A qualitative investigation of their experiences
Qualitative inductive phenomenological research investigated social workers forced to hold multiple jobs to ensure their income, tracing their motivations for employment in various jobs and the implications for social work. Purposive sampling was used to select research participants. Data were drawn from semi-structured in-depth interviews with 19 Arab social workers in Israel working in social services bureaus. Interviews were conducted between …
Critical Practices Adopted by Minority Group Social Workers Working in the Third Sector
The research traces the adoption of critical practices by minority group social workers working in the third sector. A phenomenological approach was employed, drawing data from semi-structured in-depth interviews with social workers from two entities composing the third sector in Arab society in Israel: dozens of volunteers from the religious Zakat committees and a large proportion (the statistics are confidential) of those employed in the secula…
Challenges Facing Social Work in the Indigenous Arab Minority in Israel: Voices from the Field
The article identifies challenges to social work practice voiced by 43 Arab social workers in Israel, aimed at clarifying whether there is a need to indigenise their practice in Israel's hegemonic Jewish society in view of four challenges to their interventions that they identified: inappropriate professional training; insufficient knowledge of English as the international language of social work; local Arab authorities failure to recognise many …
Coming of age? On the professionalisation of social work in Israeli-Arab society in the new millennium
The article traces social work’s development in Israel’s Palestinian society from 2007 until a reform of the welfare bureaus in 2018, based on primary and secondary written sources, interviews with Palestinian social workers employed at the time, and a survey of social workers throughout the country’s Palestinian local authorities. Despite gains, social work in this society continued to face historical government-based obstacles to its profession…
Minority group local government mayors and their relations with welfare bureau social workers
Mayors play a major role in determining their locality’s welfare policies and significantly influence the welfare bureaus’ work. This study employed in-depth semi-structured interviews with 19 mayors of local Arab governments in Israel to examine this issue. It found that the mayors fiercely criticize the welfare bureaus in four areas of concern, claiming that they ignore particular needs, neglect core target populations, lack culture-sensitive r…
The professionalization of social work in Israel’s Arab society
Social work in Israel’s indigenous Arab society developed late relative to its Jewish counterpart. Based on primary and secondary sources and semi-structured interviews with Arab social workers who were employed in social welfare bureaus during the years under review, the article describes and explains the development of social work in Israel’s Arab society in its formative years. The findings indicate this social work developed under government …
The Sane Voice in an Insane Situation’ the Perspective of Arab Social Workers Regarding the Palestinian–Israeli Conflict
Israel’s Arabs are citizens, but they are an ethnic minority and a national minority (Palestinians) in a Jewish-majority state. The decades-long Palestinian–Israeli conflict has erupted in recent years in violent outbursts between Arab and Jewish citizens. April–May 2021 saw severe violence against individuals and businesses on both sides and damage to holy sites. In this context, a qualitative study using in-depth interviews was conducted amongs…
Culturally competent social work in Arab–Palestinian locality welfare bureaus in Israel: Is it possible
Ethnic groups exist almost everywhere. Generally, each group is related to uniformly, although it may comprise several subgroups. An example is Israel’s Palestinian-Israeli population, which consists of three ethnic–religious subgroups: Muslims, Christians and Druze. They coexist in nearly all domains of life, but maintain separate schools and family law courts. Most of the professional literature on Palestinian-Israelis, especially in Israel, ig…
Social work in a conflict context: Challenges facing social workers with indigenous inhabitants of unrecognised villages in Israel
This qualitative study presents the experiences of social workers whose clients are the inhabitants of unrecognised Bedouin Arab villages in Israel. It used in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with 25 participants, recruited by the snowball method. These social workers reported that they are caught between their personal and professional values, on the one hand, and employer regulations, government policy and government law, on the other – which…
The struggles of Arab social workers in Israel: Professional success among minority group social workers
The article investigates the scope, motivations, considerations for, and implications of minority group social workers' professional success. Data was collected with primary and secondary documents and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 Arab welfare bureaus managers in Israel. The message of "success" has almost disappeared from the relevant formal institutions. One nonprofit organization provides a role model of "learning from successes…
Addressing the Ongoing Effects of the Nakba: Experiences and Challenges that Israel’s Arab Social Workers Face
The Nakba (‘catastrophe’ in Arabic) began in 1948 with the displacement and dispossession of many Palestinians, leaving a lasting impact on Palestinian society and individual identity. To this day Palestinian social workers must address the difficulties of Palestinians deriving from the Nakba whilst they themselves contend with its ramifications. This descriptive qualitative study, conducted in 2021 using in-depth semi-structured interviews, expl…
Retraining in Social Work for Arab Academic Women: Motivation and Integration into the Field
In recent decades, there has been an increased rate of higher education among Arab women in Israel that has been accompanied by an increase in their integration into various forms of employment. However, the employability options of academic Arab women graduates are limited due to the under-development of employment zones in Arab localities in the periphery of Israel. This policy has led to persistent deterioration in the quality of jobs and a hi…
The Arab Lecturer on a Zionist Campus: Student Practices Replicating National Hegemony
Minority groups tend to experience the academic campus as unpleasant and excluding. Relevant literature attempts to analyze the position of these groups, using terms such as 'race' and investigating how higher education institution mechanisms replicate the inequality between the minority group and the hegemonic majority population. In Israel, unresolved problems cause continuing tension between two national groups: citizens who are members of the…
Welfare service reforms: Arab minority welfare bureau managers assess the outcomes
Welfare bureaus constitute a safety net for the dispossessed Arab minority in Israel who are partially excluded from the state social services. The welfare bureau reforms discussed in this article are consequently crucial to improve welfare services for the underprivileged minority service users. This article partially fills a lacuna in the relevant literature by adopting a critical approach to assess the reforms' actual contributions to improvin…
The Meaning of Power for Female Arab Social Workers under the Youth Law
Israel’s Youth Law (Care and Supervision), 1960 grants social workers power, authority and responsibility to intervene to protect minors at risk. But female social workers in Israel’s Arab population function in a traditional society in which women’s power is often labelled as negative and unfeminine, and power is primarily seen as indicating masculinity. Moreover, the law is perceived as symbolising the Israeli establishment, which the Arab popu…
Minority Social Workers Share Their Previously Tacit Knowledge: Patterns and Importance of Sharing and the Context
The gap between fieldwork demands and academic knowledge necessitates the sharing of tacit knowledge to ensure continuity of context-appropriate professional knowledge. The research describes and explains patterns of minority social workers’ sharing of their previously tacit knowledge, the knowledge’s significance and the context where it was acquired. In data drawn from in-depth semi-structured interviews with twenty children and youth workers i…
Critical Practices Adopted by Minority Group Social Workers Working in the Third Sector
The research traces the adoption of critical practices by minority group social workers working in the third sector. A phenomenological approach was employed, drawing data from semi-structured in-depth interviews with social workers from two entities composing the third sector in Arab society in Israel: dozens of volunteers from the religious Zakat committees and a large proportion (the statistics are confidential) of those employed in the secula…
Not on the agenda: Investigatory notes on the institutionalised marginalisation of Arabs within the Israeli Social Workers’ Union
This study reveals tensions between Jews and Arabs in the Israeli Social Workers’ Union, examining the characteristics, experiences and functioning of the Arab minority representatives over the years until the recent election of a new radical socialist-feminist leadership. Data were elicited from semi-structured in-depth interviews with Arab delegates to the union. It was found that the policies of the union’s institutions discriminate against Ar…
Social work development in the Arab indigenous minority society in Israel at the turn of the millennium (1996-2006)
The article traces the development of social work in Israel's Arab society at the turn of the millennium (1996-2006) based on semi-structured interviews with Arab social workers who worked in the profession at the time. The findings show that Arab social work developed under the shadow of an establishment that adhered to a long standing ‘politics of contempt’, which recognised the needs of Arab society but provided it significantly fewer resource…
Encouraging professional excellence among social workers from disadvantaged minorities: Palestinians in Israel as a case study
This article investigates the way in which disadvantaged minority social workers’ professional excellence is encouraged, drawing data from an analysis of primary documents and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 Palestinian welfare bureau managers in Israel. It finds that the Jewish voluntary sector is the sole player encouraging Palestinian minority social workers’ excellence, but its encouragement maintains the status quo regime, politi…
Service users’ complaints concerning social workers’ professional functioning: Arabs in Israel as a case study
Social Workers’ Professional Failures as Perceived by Welfare Bureau Managers within Arab Society in Israel
Social workers’ professional failures are considered inevitable occurrences. However, virtually all research on professional failure management relates to the healthcare field. The scant literature on professional failure does not give much weight to the profound implications of context on professional functioning. This pioneer study illustrates how important it is to consider the context to understand the daily workplace occurrence of social wor…
Regrets among social workers in welfare bureaus: Different types and coping mechanisms
The article describes the types and strategies for dealing with professional regrets experienced by social workers. It draws data from semi-structured in-depth interviews with 21 Arab welfare bureaus social workers in Israel. Two types of professional regrets were identified: most interviewees expressed their regrets concerning non-intervention in general or not taking necessary steps for the client’s benefit. A few interviewees expressed regret …
Arab minority social workers trained in a foreign language: Linguistic challenges and coping mechanisms
The research highlights challenges involved in ensuring professional authentication faced by social workers working in cultural minorities. The findings contribute to the knowledge corpus that discusses authentication. They describe and explain possible consequences of linguistic difficulties arising in Arab minority social workers’ work in Israel. These workers acquired their profession in a foreign language (Hebrew) but work with their native m…
The potential value of home visits as experienced by social workers belonging to the minoritized Arab population in Israel
The study joins the calls for the ‘authentication’ of social work interventions in ‘real-life contexts’, investigating the potential value of home visits as perceived by minority group social workers in Israel. Data were collected from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 15 Arab social workers employed by local authority welfare bureaus. Beyond the home visit’s universal potential, the interviews revealed authentic ways to utilize the home v…
Arab minority social work students face challenges in Jewish practicum settings
This article investigates the challenges faced by Palestinian minority social work students in Jewish practicum settings and the coping strategies they employ for those challenges. Qualitative research derived data from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 15 Palestinian students. Two main challenges were described: (1) insensitivity to the students’ linguistic uniqueness/difference that alienated them from Jewish professional and administrat…
Arab social workers navigating multiple jobs in Israel: A qualitative investigation of their experiences
Qualitative inductive phenomenological research investigated social workers forced to hold multiple jobs to ensure their income, tracing their motivations for employment in various jobs and the implications for social work. Purposive sampling was used to select research participants. Data were drawn from semi-structured in-depth interviews with 19 Arab social workers in Israel working in social services bureaus. Interviews were conducted between …
Coming of age? On the professionalisation of social work in Israeli-Arab society in the new millennium
The article traces social work’s development in Israel’s Palestinian society from 2007 until a reform of the welfare bureaus in 2018, based on primary and secondary written sources, interviews with Palestinian social workers employed at the time, and a survey of social workers throughout the country’s Palestinian local authorities. Despite gains, social work in this society continued to face historical government-based obstacles to its profession…
Social work in a conflict context: Challenges facing social workers with indigenous inhabitants of unrecognised villages in Israel
This qualitative study presents the experiences of social workers whose clients are the inhabitants of unrecognised Bedouin Arab villages in Israel. It used in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with 25 participants, recruited by the snowball method. These social workers reported that they are caught between their personal and professional values, on the one hand, and employer regulations, government policy and government law, on the other – which…
The professionalization of social work in Israel’s Arab society
Social work in Israel’s indigenous Arab society developed late relative to its Jewish counterpart. Based on primary and secondary sources and semi-structured interviews with Arab social workers who were employed in social welfare bureaus during the years under review, the article describes and explains the development of social work in Israel’s Arab society in its formative years. The findings indicate this social work developed under government …
Being a social worker in the unrecognized villages in Israel
This qualitative study presents the experiences of social workers whose clients are the inhabitants of unrecognized Bedouin Arab villages in Israel. Bedouin Arabs are an indigenous people, a minority population residing throughout Israel. Half of those in the south of the country inhabit villages that are not recognized by the authorities. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted over two years by both researchers with 25 social worker…
Arab Muslim social workers between the Sharia and Western interventions and their coping mechanisms
This exploratory study of 34 religious, traditional, and secular Arab Muslim social workers in Israel traces the dilemmas caused by potential clashes between their professional and religious values. The findings suggest that although all the interviewees were aware of such clashes, only the religious ones adopted coping strategies to address them. The traditional workers regarded the conflicts in universal moral terms, and the secular workers dis…
Retraining in Social Work for Arab Academic Women: Motivation and Integration into the Field
In recent decades, there has been an increased rate of higher education among Arab women in Israel that has been accompanied by an increase in their integration into various forms of employment. However, the employability options of academic Arab women graduates are limited due to the under-development of employment zones in Arab localities in the periphery of Israel. This policy has led to persistent deterioration in the quality of jobs and a hi…
Arabization of social work in Israel’s native Arab minority: Potential and obstacles
In 2006, the Israeli Ministry of Welfare recognized the BSW degrees of two Palestinian and one Jordanian institutions, which enables their Israeli-Arab graduates to work in Israel’s social services and thus potentially assist in indigenizing social work in the country’s minority Arab society. Based on 38 interviews with some of these graduates, their supervisors and colleagues, this research found that such indigenization is indeed beneficial to …
Minority social workers permanently leaving the profession: Extent, motivations and implications
The research investigated the scope, motivations and implications of Palestinian minority social workers permanently leaving the profession. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with ten former social workers. It was found that leaving their social work posts, either temporarily or permanently, was a rare occurrence in Palestinian society. The few who abandoned the profession explained that two factors hindered their proper function…
Not on the agenda: Investigatory notes on the institutionalised marginalisation of Arabs within the Israeli Social Workers’ Union
This study reveals tensions between Jews and Arabs in the Israeli Social Workers’ Union, examining the characteristics, experiences and functioning of the Arab minority representatives over the years until the recent election of a new radical socialist-feminist leadership. Data were elicited from semi-structured in-depth interviews with Arab delegates to the union. It was found that the policies of the union’s institutions discriminate against Ar…
Social work development in the Arab indigenous minority society in Israel at the turn of the millennium (1996-2006)
The article traces the development of social work in Israel's Arab society at the turn of the millennium (1996-2006) based on semi-structured interviews with Arab social workers who worked in the profession at the time. The findings show that Arab social work developed under the shadow of an establishment that adhered to a long standing ‘politics of contempt’, which recognised the needs of Arab society but provided it significantly fewer resource…
Culturally competent social work in Arab–Palestinian locality welfare bureaus in Israel: Is it possible
Ethnic groups exist almost everywhere. Generally, each group is related to uniformly, although it may comprise several subgroups. An example is Israel’s Palestinian-Israeli population, which consists of three ethnic–religious subgroups: Muslims, Christians and Druze. They coexist in nearly all domains of life, but maintain separate schools and family law courts. Most of the professional literature on Palestinian-Israelis, especially in Israel, ig…
Arab Social Workers’ Burnout in Welfare Bureaus: Expressions, Reasons, Implications and Coping-Mechanisms
The research investigated expressions of, reasons, implications and coping strategies for burnout according to twenty-three Arab ethnic-national minority social workers in Arab welfare bureaus in Israel. Interview data indicated that burnout is expressed in somatisation and interpersonal behaviours with clients and colleagues. As in Arab culture, personal emotional suffering is not mentioned. Micro- and meso-level factors were ignored. Macro-leve…
Challenges Facing Social Work in the Indigenous Arab Minority in Israel: Voices from the Field
The article identifies challenges to social work practice voiced by 43 Arab social workers in Israel, aimed at clarifying whether there is a need to indigenise their practice in Israel's hegemonic Jewish society in view of four challenges to their interventions that they identified: inappropriate professional training; insufficient knowledge of English as the international language of social work; local Arab authorities failure to recognise many …
The Arab Lecturer on a Zionist Campus: Student Practices Replicating National Hegemony
Minority groups tend to experience the academic campus as unpleasant and excluding. Relevant literature attempts to analyze the position of these groups, using terms such as 'race' and investigating how higher education institution mechanisms replicate the inequality between the minority group and the hegemonic majority population. In Israel, unresolved problems cause continuing tension between two national groups: citizens who are members of the…
Regrets among social workers in welfare bureaus: Different types and coping mechanisms
The article describes the types and strategies for dealing with professional regrets experienced by social workers. It draws data from semi-structured in-depth interviews with 21 Arab welfare bureaus social workers in Israel. Two types of professional regrets were identified: most interviewees expressed their regrets concerning non-intervention in general or not taking necessary steps for the client’s benefit. A few interviewees expressed regret …
Arab social workers navigating multiple jobs in Israel: A qualitative investigation of their experiences
Qualitative inductive phenomenological research investigated social workers forced to hold multiple jobs to ensure their income, tracing their motivations for employment in various jobs and the implications for social work. Purposive sampling was used to select research participants. Data were drawn from semi-structured in-depth interviews with 19 Arab social workers in Israel working in social services bureaus. Interviews were conducted between …
Critical Practices Adopted by Minority Group Social Workers Working in the Third Sector
The research traces the adoption of critical practices by minority group social workers working in the third sector. A phenomenological approach was employed, drawing data from semi-structured in-depth interviews with social workers from two entities composing the third sector in Arab society in Israel: dozens of volunteers from the religious Zakat committees and a large proportion (the statistics are confidential) of those employed in the secula…
The Sane Voice in an Insane Situation’ the Perspective of Arab Social Workers Regarding the Palestinian–Israeli Conflict
Israel’s Arabs are citizens, but they are an ethnic minority and a national minority (Palestinians) in a Jewish-majority state. The decades-long Palestinian–Israeli conflict has erupted in recent years in violent outbursts between Arab and Jewish citizens. April–May 2021 saw severe violence against individuals and businesses on both sides and damage to holy sites. In this context, a qualitative study using in-depth interviews was conducted amongs…
Minority group local government mayors and their relations with welfare bureau social workers
Mayors play a major role in determining their locality’s welfare policies and significantly influence the welfare bureaus’ work. This study employed in-depth semi-structured interviews with 19 mayors of local Arab governments in Israel to examine this issue. It found that the mayors fiercely criticize the welfare bureaus in four areas of concern, claiming that they ignore particular needs, neglect core target populations, lack culture-sensitive r…
Encouraging professional excellence among social workers from disadvantaged minorities: Palestinians in Israel as a case study
This article investigates the way in which disadvantaged minority social workers’ professional excellence is encouraged, drawing data from an analysis of primary documents and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 Palestinian welfare bureau managers in Israel. It finds that the Jewish voluntary sector is the sole player encouraging Palestinian minority social workers’ excellence, but its encouragement maintains the status quo regime, politi…
Service users from the Arab minority in Israel working as welfare bureau staff: The advantages of critical practice
The struggles of Arab social workers in Israel: Professional success among minority group social workers
The article investigates the scope, motivations, considerations for, and implications of minority group social workers' professional success. Data was collected with primary and secondary documents and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 Arab welfare bureaus managers in Israel. The message of "success" has almost disappeared from the relevant formal institutions. One nonprofit organization provides a role model of "learning from successes…
Service users’ complaints concerning social workers’ professional functioning: Arabs in Israel as a case study
Welfare service reforms: Arab minority welfare bureau managers assess the outcomes
Welfare bureaus constitute a safety net for the dispossessed Arab minority in Israel who are partially excluded from the state social services. The welfare bureau reforms discussed in this article are consequently crucial to improve welfare services for the underprivileged minority service users. This article partially fills a lacuna in the relevant literature by adopting a critical approach to assess the reforms' actual contributions to improvin…
The Meaning of Power for Female Arab Social Workers under the Youth Law
Israel’s Youth Law (Care and Supervision), 1960 grants social workers power, authority and responsibility to intervene to protect minors at risk. But female social workers in Israel’s Arab population function in a traditional society in which women’s power is often labelled as negative and unfeminine, and power is primarily seen as indicating masculinity. Moreover, the law is perceived as symbolising the Israeli establishment, which the Arab popu…
Political science (36 works) · Social Work Education and Practice (33 works) · Social Work (30 works) · Law (29 works) · Sociology (29 works) · Psychology (22 works) · Public relations (18 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (17 works) · Welfare (17 works) · Migration, Health and Trauma (16 works)