Bedouins excluded from Israel’s high-tech industry

One of the sharpest criticisms facing Israel’s high-tech industry is that it is not inclusive enough. Its professional success, and even more so its economic success, remains limited to a very small sector of the population, mostly from the privileged classes. In this particular sector, salaries are often high, benefits are good, and when there is a successful “exit” — selling of a startup to a much larger high-tech company — many employees who received options or stock, suddenly find themselves rich.

Galit Hemi, editor of Calcalist, wrote about this phenomenon: “The fast, big money is shaking up the real estate market and leading to rising prices in other sectors of the economy. Gaps between the haves and have-nots are expanding, with most workers — the vast majority of workers, in fact, including the most talented, experienced, veteran and educated workers — getting left behind. They are unable to keep up with the rising prices.’’