Life in Israel and the Arab States

Postwar Transitions and New Realities

Life between 1949 and 1967 unfolded very differently in Israel and in the surrounding Arab states, even as all were shaped by the same unresolved conflict. Armistice lines had been drawn, but there was no peace treaty. Refugees, security concerns, ideological projects, and economic challenges all influenced how ordinary people lived. In this chapter we look at how societies were built, reshaped, and sometimes fractured in this period, without repeating the military and diplomatic story of these years.

Building a New Israeli Society

In Israel, the early state years were a period of intense nation building. The government and dominant political parties aimed to turn a fragmented population into a unified national society. This project involved rapid institution building, a specific vision of identity, and constant tension between security needs and civilian life.

The state invested heavily in creating common frameworks. A national education system, conscription for Jewish citizens and some minorities, and Hebrew as the primary public language were central tools. Many people experienced this as a source of pride and common purpose. Others felt marginalised when their previous languages, customs, and religious patterns were sidelined or treated as backward.

Daily life was marked by scarcity. The government imposed a rationing system known in Hebrew as the tzena, which affected food, clothing, and consumer goods. People stood in lines, relied on coupons, and reused items as much as possible. Black markets emerged. At the same time, the state promoted collective agricultural communities such as kibbutzim and moshavim as symbols of a new, self-reliant society. For residents, kibbutz life mixed ideals of equality with strict social rules and a demanding work culture.

Urban life in cities such as Tel Aviv, Haifa, and the growing western part of Jerusalem was different. There, people experienced a mixture of European style cafes and theatres with the realities of low wages, basic housing, and frequent call ups for reserve military duty. Cultural life developed quickly, with newspapers, theatres, and the beginnings of a local film and music industry. Yet the mood was not carefree. Air raid drills, memories of recent war, and fear of renewed conflict were part of the atmosphere.

Jewish Immigration and Social Tensions in Israel

One of the most decisive features of Israeli society in these years was mass immigration. Hundreds of thousands of newcomers arrived from Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. This transformed the country and created new social hierarchies and conflicts.

Many new immigrants lived for months or years in temporary immigrant camps called ma'abarot. These were tent or shack settlements with limited sanitation, few paved roads, and little privacy. Life there was harsh, especially for families arriving with few possessions. Children often adapted faster by learning Hebrew at school and on the street, which sometimes created generational tensions inside households.

Within Israeli Jewish society, differences between European origin Jews, often called Ashkenazim, and Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, commonly called Mizrahim, became a major social fault line. Ashkenazi groups tended to occupy leadership positions in politics, the civil service, the army, and cultural institutions. Mizrahi immigrants frequently felt that their traditions, accents, and religious practices were looked down upon. They were often settled in peripheral development towns or border areas, where security risks were higher and opportunities fewer.

At the same time, many immigrants embraced the chance to participate in a new collective project. Zionist youth movements, workers' unions, and political parties recruited them aggressively. Newspapers and schools promoted a shared story of rebirth after catastrophe, which resonated strongly with Holocaust survivors and others who had faced persecution.

Palestinian Citizens of Israel

A Palestinian Arab minority remained within the new borders of Israel after 1948 and received Israeli citizenship. Their experience of this period differed sharply from that of Jewish citizens. They lived under a system of military administration in many areas, which restricted movement, employment, and political activity. Travel permits were needed to leave certain localities. Curfews and special regulations shaped everyday routines.

Economically, many Palestinian citizens worked in agriculture, construction, or low paid manual jobs. Land expropriations by the state reduced the agricultural base of many communities, which in turn pushed people toward wage labor in Jewish settlements and towns. Unequal access to infrastructure, schools, and public services compared to Jewish localities was common.

Social and cultural life nonetheless persisted. Arabic newspapers, poets, and local cultural associations continued to operate under censorship and close state monitoring. Religious institutions and family networks remained central. Many people experienced a mixture of isolation, suspicion toward the state, and gradual everyday interactions with Jewish neighbors at workplaces and markets.

Urban and Rural Life in the Arab States

In the surrounding Arab states, the end of the 1948 war and the continued existence of Israel had a deep but varied impact on daily life. The conflict became one element among others in broader political and social transformations.

In countries such as Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, cities were undergoing rapid growth. Cairo, Damascus, and Baghdad saw expanding middle classes, new universities, cinemas, and newspapers. Yet poverty remained widespread in urban slums and rural villages. Large landowners still controlled much of the countryside at the start of this period, and peasants often lived in cramped housing with limited access to education and healthcare.

Coups and revolutions changed the political environment in several states, which affected ordinary citizens through new policies rather than open fighting. Land reform in places like Egypt and Syria altered ownership patterns and sometimes improved access to land for poorer farmers. At the same time, agricultural production had to adjust to new management structures and state planning.

For many people, the conflict with Israel was distant in a physical sense yet very present in public discourse. Newspapers, radio broadcasts, and political speeches regularly invoked the issue. School curricula increasingly reflected the notion of a shared Arab cause in Palestine. This ideological layer was added on top of concerns about jobs, food prices, housing, and education, which remained immediate priorities for most families.

Palestinian Refugees in the Arab States

The presence of large Palestinian refugee populations in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria had a major effect on social life there. Refugee camps were often established on the outskirts of existing towns or on marginal land. Over time, many of these camps turned into dense, semi permanent urban neighborhoods, with narrow alleys, improvised housing, and evolving local economies.

For refugees themselves, daily life involved a constant negotiation between dependence on humanitarian aid and efforts to become self sufficient. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, often referred to by its acronym UNRWA, provided schooling, basic health services, and food rations to registered refugees. Many children of this generation attended UNRWA schools, where they were exposed both to general education and to narratives that highlighted their displacement and right to return.

Employment opportunities for refugees varied greatly by country. In Jordan, many Palestinians gained citizenship and integrated into the civil service, education sector, and private economy, while refugee identity and camp life still shaped many lives. In Lebanon, legal restrictions limited access to certain professions and property ownership, which kept many Palestinians in more precarious positions. In Syria, government policy allowed more integration in some areas but remained politically controlling.

Identity among refugees often combined strong attachment to specific villages and towns in pre 1948 Palestine with adaptation to local contexts. Weddings, religious holidays, and community events kept alive memories of former homes and traditions. At the same time, younger generations increasingly experienced the camp or host city as their primary physical environment.

Political Change and Everyday Life in Egypt

Egypt provides a useful illustration of how regional politics and the conflict with Israel intersected with ordinary life. The 1952 revolution brought a new regime to power that promoted Arab nationalism and presented itself as the champion of the Palestinian cause. This political shift coincided with significant internal reforms.

Land reform reduced the holdings of large landlords and redistributed plots to some peasants. In practice, the benefits varied, but symbolic expectations were high. Expansion of state schools and universities created new opportunities for social mobility. For many families, sending a child to secondary school or university for the first time was a major change.

Nationalization policies, including the nationalization of the Suez Canal, affected workers, managers, and small business owners. State employment became more common, with job security often traded for lower wages and bureaucratic constraints. In cities, people experienced a new culture of state sponsored media, patriotic songs, and public rallies. The conflict with Israel was a recurring theme, but often linked to broader messages about Arab unity, anti colonialism, and social justice.

Border regions and the Sinai Peninsula were more directly affected by military developments, especially during the Suez Crisis. For people living there, troop movements, evacuations, and destruction of infrastructure periodically disrupted daily routines. For the majority of Egyptians, however, the impact of the conflict appeared mainly through conscription, economic strains, and the emotional charge of media coverage.

Jordan, West Bank Society, and Urban Growth

After 1948, the West Bank came under Jordanian rule, and many more Palestinians became citizens of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. This created a composite society that included long established East Bank tribes, urban elites, and large numbers of Palestinian townspeople and refugees.

In cities such as Amman, Jerusalem, Nablus, and Hebron, urban life revolved around markets, mosques, churches, schools, and coffee houses. The arrival of refugees and internal migrants accelerated urban expansion. New neighborhoods were built, sometimes without full infrastructure. Families juggled traditional extended household patterns with rising education levels and wage labor.

Education advanced significantly. Many Palestinian teachers, lawyers, and professionals found employment in Jordanian institutions. For some, this created new upward mobility. At the same time, tensions emerged between established East Bank networks and newer Palestinian communities over political representation and access to state resources.

In the countryside of the West Bank, small scale agriculture remained central. Farmers cultivated olives, grains, and vegetables, often using family labor. Seasonal work inside Jordan or in Gulf states began to supplement incomes, especially for younger men. Movement was generally freer than it would become after 1967, which allowed economic and social ties across the river.

Lebanon, Syria, and Social Fragmentation

In Lebanon and Syria, internal social structures shaped how the conflict and the refugee presence were experienced. Lebanon was characterized by a delicate balance between different religious and communal groups. The arrival of Palestinian refugees added a large Sunni Muslim and largely dispossessed population to this mix.

In Lebanese society, many citizens of different backgrounds pursued higher education, professional careers, and cosmopolitan urban lifestyles, especially in Beirut. Cafes, publishing houses, and universities flourished. Yet stark inequalities persisted between affluent neighborhoods and poorer districts, including the refugee camps. For camp residents, restricted access to formal jobs and social mobility created frustration and reinforced a sense of separateness.

Syria, under changing governments and eventually Baathist rule, promoted a vision of Arab socialism and unity. Nationalization and land reform policies affected merchants, landowners, and peasants. For Syrian citizens, these changes brought new forms of state involvement in everyday life, from subsidized goods to state controlled unions. Palestinian refugees in Syria often had broader access to state schools and employment than in Lebanon, but were still treated as a distinct group subject to political oversight.

In both countries, the conflict with Israel and the Palestinian issue featured prominently in state rhetoric and media, yet daily concerns about housing, employment, political repression, and social services frequently took precedence in the private lives of families.

Cultural Life, Media, and the Shadow of Conflict

Across Israel and the Arab states, culture and media in this period both reflected and shaped popular understandings of the conflict. In Israel, literature, theatre, and emerging cinema explored themes of pioneering, wartime loss, and the challenges of immigrant integration. Songs and national ceremonies commemorated fallen soldiers and celebrated state achievements. Palestinian and Arab citizens of Israel developed their own literary voices within a constrained public space, sometimes using symbolism and allegory to address themes of dispossession and identity.

In the Arab world, popular music, radio dramas, and films produced in Egypt and other centers reached wide audiences. Famous singers and actors became regional icons, and their works sometimes included explicit or indirect references to the plight of Palestinians and the need for Arab solidarity. Newspapers and radio often covered border incidents and diplomatic developments, but they also reported on domestic issues, sports, and culture, which provided a sense of normalcy amid recurring crises.

Censorship and propaganda were common on all sides. Governments sought to control how the conflict and internal problems were discussed. This influenced what people could openly say but did not completely prevent private conversations, jokes, and critical reflections within homes and trusted circles. Over time, official narratives about Israel and Palestine became deeply embedded in school curricula, public commemorations, and media, shaping how generations understood their own lives in relation to the conflict.

Everyday Security, Fear, and Adaptation

While large scale wars did not occur continuously between 1949 and 1967, the sense of unresolved conflict was constant. Border regions in particular experienced raids, retaliatory attacks, and military patrols. For villagers near the armistice lines, this meant occasional shooting, landmines, and restrictions on access to fields. Families adjusted planting seasons, grazing routes, and daily movements to perceived risks.

In Israel, regular military reserve service for men integrated the armed forces into civilian life. Workplaces had to accommodate reserve duty. Families planned around training periods and call ups. Air raid shelters and drills were part of the social landscape, even in calmer years. In Arab states, conscription and mobilization also touched many households, removing young men from work or studies for periods of training and service.

Despite these pressures, many people on all sides focused on building homes, raising children, and seeking better lives. Weddings, religious holidays, market days, and local festivals continued. Some individuals and communities developed quiet, informal contacts across borders, especially where family ties had been divided by new lines. Yet the broader political environment often discouraged or criminalized such interactions.

By 1967, societies in Israel and the Arab states had undergone profound changes in social structure, economy, and culture. The conflict over Palestine and Israel remained central to public narratives, law, and state policy, but it was lived through the specific experiences of scarcity or growth, migration or rootedness, fear or hope, and inclusion or marginalization. These lived realities would deeply influence how different populations entered the next major turning point in 1967.