The central claim of this chapter is that policy practice is an emergent form of social work practice in Israel, yet, to a large extent, it remains relatively marginalised in the field. Following a brief description of the context in which social workers operate, the Israeli welfare state and the social work profession in Israel, the place that policy practice plays in contemporary social work discourse, education and practice will be examined and explained. The chapter will conclude with a brief summary of the trends identified.

The Israeli welfare state

Israel is a welfare state in the sense that among both decision makers and the public as a whole there is acknowledgement of the fact that the state has a responsibility to ensure the social rights of individuals in society. In other words, there is explicit recognition of the role of the state in providing an acceptable standard of living for all and furthering redistribution of societal resources. This recognition is, of course, tempered by diverse views on both the actual standard of living that should be ensured and the manner and degree to which resources should be distributed. Nevertheless there is a large body of legislation and diverse institutions in Israel through which welfare state goals are furthered and the benefits and services that constitute it are provided. In expenditure terms, half of the state budget is devoted to social services, though this makes up only 15.6% of the country's gross domestic product, an expenditure level that is significantly lower than that in most welfare states (Bendelac, 2010).

Initial efforts to establish social protection institutions in Israel were undertaken immediately after independence in 1948. Despite the need to deal with an ongoing military conflict and mass immigration during much of its short history, Israel managed to establish a welfare state in the early 1970s. To a large degree the Beveridge model, with its emphasis on universal social insurance based benefits, served as the fundamental basis for structuring major social security programmes (Doron, 1994). In addition, categorical non-contributory universal benefits have traditionally played a major role in the Israeli welfare state, these serving as a means of compensating victims of the Arab–Israeli conflict and of dealing with immigrants’ needs and their integration into society (Gal, 2008). Finally, a nationally administered social assistance programme was introduced in the early 1980s.