The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is often viewed in high-politics terms that overlook the on-the-ground economic realities of ordinary people. Leila Farsakh's book, which focuses on the determinants of Palestinian labor migration to the Israeli economy, is a welcome contribution for its opposition to that tendency.

Farsakh's main theme is that this labor migration is driven more by political factors than pure economic forces and is rooted fundamentally in the Israeli occupation. It is hard to imagine that it would be otherwise—only a thoroughly unreconstructed neoliberal economist would suppose that wage differences between the two economies explain this migration. The analysis thus often seems to state the obvious; conversely, it is very thorough and comprehensive. There is particular emphasis on the role of Israeli land policy: confiscation of Palestinian land (along with restrictions on trade and investment) has inhibited agricultural employment, leading Palestinians to seek alternatives. Of course, alternatives in the local Palestinian economy have been restricted by Israeli policies in relation to other economic sectors, and many workers find no alternative to employment in Israel. Absorption of Palestinian workers is controlled to a degree by a permit system designed to satisfy Israel's security needs as well as to limit competition with Israeli workers, although a substantial number of Palestinians have evaded the permit system as well.

The focus on political determinants (particularly in relation to land) is most convincing in its analysis of how the West Bank and Gaza are treated differently. Israel is more committed to its settlements in the West Bank than to those in Gaza (the book was written before the withdrawal from Gaza), and so substantial numbers of Palestinians from the West Bank continue to work in the Israeli economy whereas employment of Gazans has been much more restricted in recent years. A key factor in this difference is the employment of Palestinians in West Bank settlements, particularly in construction—a topic on which Farsakh rightly claims to fill a gap in the available literature.

For anyone with the slightest interest in the topic of Palestinian labor migration to Israel, this book will be invaluable. The extent of interest among others is harder to gauge. In a theoretical chapter, Farsakh orients the discussion to theories of migration. However, migration scholars usually distinguish between internal and international migration. Farsakh does not address this distinction—perhaps because it seems quite difficult to do so. Palestinians (i.e., those discussed here) are not Israeli citizens, which suggests that this is international migration. In contrast, the occupation (and the settlements in particular) means that this border is not like other borders. Of course, that is one of Farsakh's main points, and nothing would be gained by trying to force the case into one or the other category. All the same, at times it is hard to answer the question, What is this a case of?

In the end, the difficulty is one of comparability. I cannot think of another case that is similar enough to Israel/Palestine to warrant application of Farsakh's argument in a more general way. This does not mean that there is no possibility of drawing insights from this case to learn something about other instances of labor migration. However, it is telling that Farsakh herself does not attempt to do so, and it is unclear whether migration scholars will find something of more general value here.

The one respect in which comparison might be possible relates to the discussion of “bantustanisation,” an important theme in the later chapters. However, I found the term a distraction from an otherwise sound argument. It is defined concisely on page 192: the fragmentation of the West Bank “into population enclaves that depend on an Israeli economy and yet cannot easily access it.” This process emerges first as an important consequence of the Oslo agreements and then later in Israel's response to the resumption of the intifada in 2000. In contrast to optimistic expectations, Oslo did not lead to sustained economic development in Palestine; instead, dependence on the Israeli labor market only deepened as territorial contiguity was impeded.

The term itself will likely appear useful only to those who accept a broader analogy between Israel and South Africa. As such, it politicizes the presentation in a way that might detract from a more dispassionate assessment of the content of the argument itself. Moreover, it is not clear what is gained by using it, unless the point is simply to decry the illegitimacy of the occupation, a stance that is already abundantly clear throughout the book. Farsakh is careful to describe some of the differences between the two cases—principally, the fact that Israel's main concern is maintaining control over Palestinian land, not labor and other economic factors. But this makes use of the term all the more puzzling. Again, the processes Farsakh describes are real and significant in relation to the overall analysis, but the term “bantustanisation” does not seem helpful in summarizing those processes.

Nevertheless, there is a wealth of sound analysis here, and the book is clearly written and well structured.