Labor, Arms, and Homes

Financial, work-based contributions underly entitlement to pension benefits in Israel. This article examines the historical development of the pension system in Israel, including the pensions of long-term military veterans and Jewish immigrants, expanding the notion of ‘contribution’ beyond its initial meaning of work-based financial accumulation. Specifically, it shows that both before and after the erosion of the union-protected contributory rationale in the 1990s, an alternative path to pension entitlement has operated through non-financial, political-symbolic contributions. The analysis emphasizes the importance of sectoral organizations for the broader analysis of social policy, and for understanding the structure of “social citizenship” and its discriminatory implications in Israel.