Israeli Economy

Israel’s 1948 founding economy was tied to Jewish history in Europe and the entire Zionist enterprise and later the Israeli economy would be built on connecting a highly educated people to the land. Having been minorities in the diaspora, Jews in Palestine wanted to end reliance on non-Jewish populations. Social and economic transformations grew as early immigrants brought their socialist ideals. Established initially in agriculture, Zionists gradually developed small trades in major urban areas. While some immigrants came as capitalists, the socialist zeal of Israel’s founding majority dominated economic growth well into the 1970s. Under the British Mandate, export and import trade was limited. It had the effect of stimulating self-sufficiency. Violent Arab outbreaks catalyzed Arab and Jewish separatism demographically and economically. Wage and investment levels and national incomes per capita, greatly elevated the Jewish over the Arab economy.

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