The housing policies for Ethiopian immigrants in Israel: spatial segregation, economic feasibility and political acceptability

This paper studies the housing absorption policies of the Israeli government for almost 50 000 Black Ethiopian Jews who immigrated since the early 1980s. The objective is to explain why particular policies were adopted and why the Ethiopians were treated so differently. Why did so many Ethiopians find themselves in spatially segregated housing in the periphery despite official policies to the contrary? One explanation is provided by Holt (1995) who argues that the spatial segregation of housing for Ethiopians was inevitable; policies mattered little. It is argued here that policies did matter - it was government policy that directed Ethiopians to specific communities and locations - but the key to understanding why the particular policies were adopted lies with the concepts of political acceptability and feasibility (economic and political).