Arab citizens of Israel[2] is a phrase used to refer to the legal Israeli citizens or residents whose cultural and linguistic heritage or ethnic identity is Arab.[3] The traditional and current vernacular of Arab citizens, irrespective of religion, is the Arabic language, or more precisely, the Palestinian dialect of Arabic. Most Arab citizens of Israel are functionally bilingual, their second language being Modern Hebrew. By religious affiliation, most are Muslim, particularly of the Sunni branch of Islam. There is a significant Arab Christian minority from various denominations, as well as Druze, among other religious communities. Jews of Arab extraction are not considered to form part of this population. As of 2008, Arab citizens of Israel comprise just over 20% of the country's total population. The majority of these identify themselves as Arab or Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship.[3][4][5] Many have family ties to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as to Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Negev Bedouins tend to identify more as Israelis than other Arab citizens of Israel.[6] Unlike other Arabs, the Druze are conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces.[7][8] Special cases include Arabs living in East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, administered by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967. The residents of East Jerusalem became permanent residents of Israel shortly after the war. Only a few of them accepted Israeli citizenship, and most of them keep close ties with the West Bank. They are allowed to vote for municipal services.[9] The mostly Druze residents of the Golan Heights are considered permanent residents under the Golan Heights Law of 1981. The vast majority have refused to accept full Israeli citizenship, choosing to retain their Syrian citizenship and identity.[10] "Arab citizens of Israel", "Arabs of Israel", "Arab Israelis", "Israeli Arabs", "Minorities", "Arab population of Israel", "Arab inhabitants", or the "Arab sector" are terms used by the Israeli government, Israeli Jews, and by the Hebrew-speaking media in Israel, to refer to Arabs that are citizens and/or residents of the State of Israel.[12][13][14] The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics defines the area covered in its statistics survey as including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. As a result, the number of Arabs in Israel is calculated as just over 20% of the Israeli population (2008).[1] In 2006, the official number of Arab residents in Israel - including East Jerusalem permanent residents many of whom are not citizens - was 1,413,500 people, about 20% of Israel’s population.[46] According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (May 2003), Muslims, including Bedouins, make up 82% of the entire Arab population in Israel, with around 9% Druze, and 9% Christians.[47] The national language and mother tongue of Arab citizens, including the Druze, is Arabic and the colloquial spoken language is of the Palestinian Arabic dialect. Knowledge and command of Modern Standard Arabic varies.[48] Outside of the Bedouin population, traditionally settled communities of Muslim Arabs comprise about 70% of the Arab population in Israel. Muslims in Israel have the highest birthrate of any group: 4.0 children per woman, as opposed to 2.7 for Jewish Israelis, a natural reproduction rate of 3% compared to 1.5%.[49] Around 25% of the children in Israel today were born to Muslim parents. The Muslim population is mostly young: 42% of Muslims are children under the age of 15, compared with 26% of the Jewish population. The median age of Muslim Israelis is 18, while the median age of Jewish Israelis is 30. The percentage of people over 65 is less than 3% for Muslims, compared with 12% for the Jewish population.[47] According to forecasts, the Muslim population will grow to over 2,000,000 people, or 24-26% of the population within the next 15 years. They will also comprise 85% of the Arab population in Israeli in 2020 (up 3% from 2005).[50] See the section onDemographics for more on this issue. According to the Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel, 110,000 Bedouins live in the Negev, 50,000 in the Galilee, and 10,000 in the central region of Israel.[51] The term "Bedouin" ("Badawi" or "Baddu" in Arabic) defines a range of nomadic desert-dwelling ethnic groups spanning from the western Saharadesert to the Nejd desert including one of its arms, the Negev ("Naqab" in Arabic). Through the latter half of the 19th century, the traditionally pastoral nomadic Bedouin in Palestine began transitioning to a semi-nomadic pastoral agricultural community, with an emphasis on agricultural production and the privatization of tribal lands.[52] Although the Bedouin in Israel continue to be perceived as nomads, today all of them are fullysedentarized, and about half are urbanites.[53] Prior to the establishment of Israel in 1948, there were an estimated 65,000-90,000 Bedouin living in the Negev.[52] The 11,000 who remained were relocated by the Israeli government in the 1950s and 1960s to an area called the siyag ("enclosure" or, "fence") made up of relatively infertile land in the northeastern Negev comprising 10% of the Negev desert.[52] Negev Bedouins, like the rest of the Arab population in Israel, lived under military rule up to 1966, after which restrictions were lifted and they were free to move outside the siyag as well. However, even after 1966 they were not free to reside outside of the siyag; they came to reside within 2% of the Negev[54] and never returned to their former range. The Israeli government encourages Bedouin to settle as permanent residents in these development towns. Around half the Bedouin population lives in seven towns built for them by the Israeli government between 1979 and 1982. The largest Bedouin locality in Israel is the city of Rahat. Other towns include Ar'arat an-Naqab (Ar'ara BaNegev), Bir Hadaj, Hura, Kuseife, Lakiya, Shaqib al-Salam (Segev Shalom) and Tel as-Sabi (Tel Sheva). Approximately 40%-50% of Bedouin citizens of Israel live in 39-45 Unrecognized bedouin villages.[55][56] The unrecognised villages are ineligible for municipal services such as connection to the electrical grid, water mains or trash-pickup.[55] The unrecognized villages are not precisely marked on commercial maps. The Druze are members of a sect residing in many countries, although predominantly in mountainous regions in Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. Druze in Israel live mainly in the north, notably in Carmel City, near Haifa. There are also Druze localities in the Golan Heights, such as Majdal Shams, which were captured in 1967 from Syria and annexed to Israel in 1981. It is in keeping with Druze religious practice to always serve the country in which they live.[57] So while the Druze population in Israel are Arabic speakers like their counterparts in Syria and Lebanon, they often consider themselves Israeli and unlike the Arab Muslims and Arab Christians in Israel they rarely identify themselves as Palestinians.[58] As early as 1939, the leadership of one Druze village formally allied itself with pre-Israeli militias, like the Haganah.[7] A separate "Israeli Druze" identity was encouraged by the Israeli government who formally recognized the Druze religious community as independent of the Muslim religious community in Israeli law as early as 1957.[59] The Druze are defined as a distinct ethnic group in the Israeli Ministry of Interior's census registration. While the Israeli education system is basically divided into Hebrew and Arabic speaking schools, the Druze have autonomy within the Arabic speaking branch.[59] The Druze of British Mandate of Palestine showed little interest in Arab nationalism that was on the rise in the 20th century, and did not take part in the early Arab-Jewish skirmishes of the era either. By 1948, many young Druze volunteered for the Israeli army and actively fought on their side. Unlike their Christian and Muslim counterparts, no Druze villages were destroyed in the 1948 war and no Druze left their settlements permanently.[23] Unlike most other Arab citizens of Israel, right-wing Israeli political parties have appealed to many Druze.Ayoob Kara, for example, represented the conservative Likud in the Knesset, and other parties such as Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu have likewise attracted Druze voters.[citation needed]Currently, a Druze MK, Majalli Wahabi of the centrist Kadima, as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, is next in line to the acting presidency.[60] Christian Arabs comprise about 9% of the Arab population in Israel, and approximately 70% reside in the North District (Israel) in the towns of Jish,Eilabun, Kafr Yasif, Kafr Kanna, I'billin, and Shefa-'Amr while many reside in Nazareth. Several other villages, including a number of Druze villages such asHurfeish and Maghar, are inhabited by Christian Arabs.[47] Nazareth has the largest Christian Arab population. There are 117,000 or more Christian Arabs in Israel.[61] Christian Arabs have been prominent in Arab political parties in Israel and these leaders have included Archbishop George Hakim, Emile Toma,Tawfik Toubi, Emile Habibi, and Azmi Bishara. Notable Christian religious figures in Israel include the Melkite Archbishops of the Galilee Elias Chacour and Boutros Mouallem, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah, and Bishop Munib Younan of the Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land. The only non-Jewish Arab judge to receive a permanent appointment to preside over Israel's Supreme Court is a Christian Arab, Salim Joubran. The relationship of Arab citizens to the State of Israel is often fraught with tension and can be regarded in the context of relations between minority populations and state authorities elsewhere in the world.[63] Arab citizens consider themselves to be an indigenous people.[64] The tension between their Palestinian Arab national identity and their identity as citizens of Israel was famously described by an Arab public figure as, "My state is at war with my nation".[65] According to a 2006 survey, Most of the Israeli Arabs are not proud of their citizenship (56%), and are not ready to fight to defend the state (73%). In contrast, the rate of Arab Israelis who believe that Israel is better than most other countries (77%) is among the highest in the developed world with regards to this measure. 82% of Arab respondents said they would rather be a citizen of Israel than of any other country in the world.[62] According to the 2008 National Resilience Survey, conducted by Dr. Yussuf Hassan of the Tel Aviv University, 43% of Muslims refer to themselves as "Palestinian-Arabs"; 15% defined themselves as "Arab-Israelis" and four percent of those surveyed said they considered themselves "Muslim-Israelis". According to the same survey, 24% of Christians in Israel said they defined themselves as "Arab-Palestinians", 24% referred to themselves as "Arab-Israelis", and an equal number of respondents said they considered themselves "Christian-Israelis". In 2008 more than 94% of Druze youngsters classified themselves as "Druze-Israelis" in the religious and national context. Arabs living in East Jerusalem, occupied and administered by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, are a special case. They became permanent residents of Israel shortly after the war. Although they hold Israeli ID cards, few have applied for Israeli citizenship, to which they are entitled, and most maintain close ties with the West Bank.[9] As permanent residents, they are eligible to vote in Jerusalem's municipal elections, although only a small percentage takes advantage of this right. The remaining Druze population of the Golan Heights, occupied and administered by Israel in 1967, are considered permanent residents under the Golan Heights Law of 1981. Few have accepted full Israeli citizenship and the vast majority consider themselves citizens of Syria.[66] Arab citizens of Israel form a majority of the population (52%) in Israel's Northern District[1] and about 50% of the Arab population lives in 114 different localities throughout Israel.[67] In total there are 122 primarily if not entirely Arab localities in Israel, 89 of them having populations over two thousand.[68] The seven townships as well as the Abu Basma Regional Councilthat have been constructed by the government for the Bedouin population of the Negev,[69] are the only Arab localities to have been established since 1948, with the aim of relocating the Arab Bedouin citizens (see above section on Bedouin). 46% of the country’s Arabs (622,400 people) live in predominantly-Arab communities in the north.[1] Nazareth is the largest Arab city, with a population of 65,000, roughly 40,000 of whom are Muslim. Shefa-'Amr has a population of approximately 32,000 and the city is mixed with sizable populations of Muslims, Christians, and Druze. Jerusalem, a mixed city, has the largest overall Arab population. Jerusalem housed 209,000 Arabs in 2000 and they make up some 33% of the city’s residents and together with the local council of Abu Ghosh, some 19% of the country’s entire Arab population. 14% of Arab citizens live in the Haifa District predominantly in the Wadi Ara region. Here is the largest Muslim city, Umm al-Fahm, with a population of 43,000. Baqa-Jatt and Carmel Cityare the two second largest Arab population centers in the district. The city of Haifa has an Arab population of 9%, much of it in the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood. 10% of the country's Arab population resides in the Center District of Israel, primarily the cities of Tayibe, Tira, and Qalansawe as well as the mixed cities of Lod and Ramla which have mainly Jewish populations.[47] Of the remaining 11%, 10% live in Bedouin communities in the northwestern Negev. The Bedouin city of Rahat is the only Arab city in the South District and it is the third largest Arab city in Israel. The remaining 1% of the country's Arab population lives in cities that are almost entirely Jewish such as, Nazareth Illit with an Arab population of 9% and Tel Aviv-Yafo, 4%.[47][67] In February 2008, the government announced that the first new Arab city would be constructed in Israel. According to Haaretz, "[s]ince the establishment of the State of Israel, not a single new Arab settlement has been established, with the exception of permanent housing projects for Bedouins in the Negev."[70]Arab citizens of Israel
Terms used to refer to Arab citizens of Israel in the Arab media or Arabic cultural lexicon are "the Arabs of '48", "the Palestinians of '48",[11] or "the Arabs within" (عرب الداخل). These Arabic terms are not applied to the East Jerusalem Arab population or the Druze in the Golan Heights, since these territories were occupied by Israel in 1967. The majority of Israel'sArab citizens identify as Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship, generally identifying themselves as "Palestinian citizens of Israel" or "Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel."[3][4][edit]Terminology[edit]Ethnic and religious groupings
[edit]Muslims
[edit]Bedouin
[edit]Druze
[edit]Christians
[edit]Self-identification
]Population
Arab citizens of Israel
عرب إسرائيل (العرب الإسرائيليون)
ערבים אזרחי ישראל
Notable Arab citizens of Israel:
Emile Habibi •Ahmad Tibi •Boutros Mouallem•Majalli Wahabi• Samih al-Qasim • Salim Tuama •Juliano Mer-Khamis •Raleb Majadele •Umayya Abu-Hanna • Mira Awad
Total population
1,271,000
over 278,000 in East Jerusalem
and the Golan Heights (2008)
20.4% of Israeli population[1]
Regions with significant populations
Israel
Languages
Palestinian Arabic and Hebrew
Religion
Islam 83% (mostly Sunni), Christianity 8.5% andDruze 8.3%[1]
Sunday, 1 August 2010
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See also: Palestinian Christians
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