Immigrants and society - a critical view of the dominant school of Israeli sociology.

This paper presents a critical review and discussion of a major field of Israeli sociology - the study of immigration and absorption. It concentrates on the dominant school of Israeli sociology, that of S.N.Eisenstadt and his associates, and points to the close relation between this body of work and functionalist theory. The paper demonstrates the inadequacy of this approach for the study of the formation of Israeli society, and its inability to deal with important economic and political developments. It is argued that its omissions and conclusions both point to the basic affinity between this school of Israeli sociology and the dominant state ideology. - Author