ABSTRACT

The emergence of multicultural theory and of claims of recognition by cultural, ethnic and national minorities has brought to the forefront previously neglected aspects of the right to equality, and has enriched our understanding of the social conditions needed for the realization of true equality. At the same time, however, some, such as Nancy Fraser, would argue that claims for cultural recognition fail to fully capture, and even distort, the meaning of equality, by displacing other crucial aspects of equality such as redistribution and political participation.

Building on Fraser’s critique and the reactions to it I will suggest an analytical Framework for a contextualized assessment of claims of cultural and ethnic groups along three dimensions of justice – recognition, redistribution and political participation. I will employ this framework to test the situation of the two most significant cultural/ethnic minorities in Israel the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel and the ultra orthodox Jews and asses their claims of discrimination and demands for accommodation.

Using these groups as an example I will show that by shifting the focus from realities of redistribution and political participation to assumed cultural differences that become the prism through which everything else is measured, the language of multiculturalism and of cultural/ethnic difference helps obscure power disparities and a reality of economic and political discrimination (or preference). Hence, I will conclude that the promise of multicultural theory to enhance and expand the meaning of equality can only be fulfilled by conceding that recognition is merely one of several dimensions of justice and by measuring the respective positions of cultural and ethnic minorities through a full examination of their status, class and rights along all the different dimensions of justice.