Back عرب 48 Arabic عرب 48 ARZ İsrail ərəbləri Azerbaijani ایسراییل عرب‌لری AZB ইসরায়েলের আরব নাগরিক Bengali/Bangla Àrabs d'Israel Catalan ھاووڵاتییانی عەرەبی ئیسرائیل CKB Izraelští Arabové Czech Israelske arabere Danish Arabische Israelis German

Arab citizens of Israel

Arab citizens of Israel
المواطنون الفلسطينيون في إسرائيل‎
עֲרָבִים אֶזרָחֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל‎
Map of Arab localities in Israel, 2015
Total population
Green Line, 2023:
2,065,000 (21%)[1][2]
East Jerusalem and Golan Heights, 2012:
278,000 (~3%)
Regions with significant populations
 State of Israel
Languages
Arabic[a] and Hebrew
Religion
Islam (84%)[b]
Christianity (8%)[c]
Druze (8%)[3]
Related ethnic groups
Middle Eastern peoples

The Arab citizens of Israel form the country's largest ethnic minority.[4][5] Their community mainly consists of former Mandatory Palestine citizens (and their descendants) who continued to inhabit the territory that was acknowledged as Israeli by the 1949 Armistice Agreements.[6] Notions of identity among Israel's Arab citizens are complex, encompassing civic, religious, and ethnic components.[7] Some sources report that the majority of Arabs in Israel prefer to be identified as Palestinian citizens of Israel,[8][9][10][11] while recent surveys indicate that most name "Israeli", "Israeli-Arab", or "Arab" as the most important components of their identity,[12][13][14] reflecting a shift of "Israelization" among the community.[13][15]

In the wake of the 1948 Palestine war, the Israeli government conferred Israeli citizenship upon all Palestinians who had remained or were not expelled. However, they were subject to discrimination by being placed under martial law until 1966, while other Israeli citizens were not. In the early 1980s, Israel granted citizenship eligibility to the Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the Syrian citizens of the Golan Heights by annexing both areas, though they remain internationally recognized as part of the Israeli-occupied territories, which came into being after the Six-Day War of 1967.[16] Acquisition of Israeli citizenship in East Jerusalem has been scarce, as only 5% of Palestinians in East Jerusalem were Israeli citizens in 2022, largely due to Palestinian society's disapproval of naturalization as complicity with the occupation. After the Second Intifada, the opposition loosened, but Israel made the process more difficult, approving only 34% of new Palestinian applications.[citation needed]

According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, the Israeli Arab population stood at 2.1 million people in 2023, accounting for 21% of Israel's total population.[1] The majority of these Arab citizens identify themselves as Arab or Palestinian by nationality and as Israeli by citizenship.[17][18][19] They mostly live in Arab-majority towns and cities, some of which are among the poorest in the country, and generally attend schools that are separated to some degree from those attended by Jewish Israelis.[20] Arab political parties traditionally did not join governing coalitions until 2021, when the United Arab List became the first to do so.[21] The Druze and the Bedouin in the Negev and the Galilee have historically expressed the strongest non-Jewish affinity to Israel and are more likely to identify as Israelis than other Arab citizens.[22][23][24][25]

Speakers of both Arabic and Hebrew, their traditional vernacular is mostly Levantine Arabic, including Lebanese Arabic in northern Israel, Palestinian Arabic in central Israel, and Bedouin Arabic across the Negev. Because the modern Arabic dialects of Israel's Arabs have absorbed multiple Hebrew loanwords and phrases, it is sometimes called the Israeli Arabic dialect.[26] By religious affiliation, the majority of Arab Israelis are Muslims, but there are significant Christian and Druze minorities, among others.[27] Arab citizens of Israel have a wide variety of self-identification: as Israeli or "in Israel"; as Arabs, Palestinians, or Israelis; and as Muslims, Christians or Druze.[28]

  1. ^ a b "ישראל במספרים ערב ראש השנה תשפ". www.cbs.gov.il (in Hebrew). Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  2. ^ "65th Independence Day – More than 8 Million Residents in the State of Israel" (PDF). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. 14 April 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 November 2017. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
  3. ^ "Israel's Independence Day 2019" (PDF). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. 1 May 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  4. ^ Robinson, Kali (14 June 2021). "What to Know about the Arab citizens of Israel". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  5. ^ "Arabs of Israel, minority with deep-seated grievances". France 24. 13 May 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  6. ^ Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla (12 May 2008). The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History [4 volumes]: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 503. ISBN 978-1-85109-842-2.
  7. ^ Rudnitzky, Arik (12 December 2024). "In-Depth Survey of the Arab Public after a Year of War". Retrieved 9 January 2025. With respect to the personal identity of Arab citizens, three dominant components emerge: Israeli citizenship (33.9%), religious affiliation (29.2%), and Arab identity (26.9%). For a smaller segment of respondents (9%), Palestinian identity is the dominant component of their identity.
  8. ^ Rudoren, Jodi (13 July 2012). "Service to Israel Tugs at Identity of Arab Citizens". New York Times. After decades of calling themselves Israeli Arabs, which in Hebrew sounds like Arabs who belong to Israel, most now prefer Palestinian citizens of Israel.
  9. ^ Robinson, Kali (26 October 2023). "What to Know About the Arab Citizens of Israel". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 2 March 2024. Israeli government documents and media refer to Arab citizens as "Arabs" or "Israeli Arabs," and some Arabs use those terms themselves. Global news media usually use similar phrasing to distinguish these residents from Arabs who live in the Palestinian territories. Most members of this community self-identify as "Palestinian citizens of Israel," and some identify just as "Palestinian" rejecting Israeli identity. Others prefer to be referred to as Arab citizens of Israel for various reasons
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference wapo2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Farzan, Antonia Noori (13 May 2021). "Arab Israelis are rising up to protest. Here's what you need to know about their status in the country". Washington Post. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  12. ^ Zonshine, Idan (21 April 2020). "Only 7% of Israeli Arabs define themselves as 'Palestinian'". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 9 January 2025.
  13. ^ a b Neifakh, Veronica (27 December 2024). "Israeli Arabs Embrace Shared Fate With Jews While Backing 2-State Solution". The Media Line. Retrieved 9 January 2024. There is a clear direction of what you may call Israelization—the Israelization of Israeli Arabs. You see a clear growth in identification with either the Israeli identity or citizenship or with non-Palestinian categories such as Israeli Arab or Arab.
  14. ^ Rudnitzsky, Arik (3 December 2023). "In-depth Survey of Arab Society's Views on the War between Israel and Hamas". The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. Retrieved 9 January 2025. The two dominant components of Arab personal identity are Israeli citizenship (33%) and Arab identity (32%). A small number (8%) feel that Palestinian identity is the dominant component in their personal identity.
  15. ^ Svetlova, Ksenia (4 October 2019). "Arab citizens of Israel undergo quiet revolution". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 9 January 2025. Arab citizens of Israel are undeniably part of a wider milieu of Arabs and, in most cases, Muslims, globally, and many of them also have a strong Palestinian identity. Yet as time goes by, their sense of belonging and the need to fight for their rights speeds up the process of "Israelization." More Arabs Israelis speak Hebrew today than ever before (but more Jews do not speak Arabic than ever before), more Arabs are involved in the job market, and more Arabs and Jews share living space in mixed towns than in the past.
  16. ^ "Question of Palestine: Jerusalem". United Nations. Archived from the original on 22 September 2009.
  17. ^ "Identity Crisis: Israel and its Arab Citizens". Middle East Report (25). 4 March 2004. Archived from the original on 13 March 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2011.. "The issue of terminology relating to this subject is sensitive and at least partially a reflection of political preferences. Most Israeli official documents refer to the Israeli Arab community as "minorities". The Israeli National Security Council (NSC) has used the term "Arab citizens of Israel". Virtually all political parties, movements and non-governmental organisations from within the Arab community use the word "Palestinian" somewhere in their description – at times failing to make any reference to Israel. For consistency of reference and without prejudice to the position of either side, ICG will use both Arab Israeli and terms the community commonly uses to describe itself, such as Palestinian citizens of Israel or Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel."
  18. ^ Johnathan Marcus (2 May 2005). "Israeli Arabs: 'Unequal citizens'". BBC News. Retrieved 6 December 2007.
  19. ^ An IDI Guttman Study of 2008 shows that most Arab citizens of Israel identify as Arabs (45%). While 24% consider themselves Palestinian, 12% consider themselves Israelis, and 19% identify themselves according to religion. Poll: Most Israelis see themselves as Jewish first, Israeli second
  20. ^ 4 ways Jews and Arabs live apart in Israeli society, Ben Sales, 12 April 2016, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
  21. ^ Kershner, Isabel (2 June 2021). "The Arab party Raam makes history within coalition". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  22. ^ Steven Dinero (2004). "New Identity/Identities Formulation in a Post-Nomadic Community: The Case of the Bedouin of the Negev". National Identities. 6 (3): 261–275. Bibcode:2004NatId...6..261D. doi:10.1080/1460894042000312349. ISSN 1460-8944. S2CID 143809632.
  23. ^ The Druze Minority in Israel in the Mid-1990s, by Gabriel Ben-Dor Archived 12 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 1995-06-01. Retrieved on 2012-01-23.
  24. ^ Mya Guarnieri, Where is the Bedouin Intifada? Archived 21 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine The Alternative Information Center (AIC), 9 February 2012.
  25. ^ Israel's Arab citizens: Key facts and current realities Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, UK Task Force, June 2012.
  26. ^ Mendel, Y. The Creation of Israeli Arabic. Springer 2014.
  27. ^ "The Arab Population in Israel" (PDF). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  28. ^ Cohen, Roger (1 August 2021). "Riots Shatter Veneer of Coexistence in Israel's Mixed Towns". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 July 2022.


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