The exclusionary logic of the welfare state: Palestinian citizens in the Israeli welfare state

This article examines the ways in which exclusionary practices with regard to Palestinian citizens were institutionalized in one of the most central components of the Israeli welfare state: the child allowance scheme. Different child allowance programmes are studied in a historical perspective, analysing patterns of implicit and formal exclusion. Following theories which refer to the political economy of the welfare state, the article focuses on the connection between exclusionary practices and the shaping of the stratification structure in advanced capitalist societies. It is argued that the partial exclusion of Palestinian citizens has been patterned by the interaction between two analytically distinct logics: the Zionist logic of the Israeli state, and the inner logic of the welfare state as a stratificatory mechanism.