Arab citizens of Israel

Ethnic group Map of Arab population, 2000 Arab citizens of Israel is a phrase used to refer to the legal Israeli citizens or residents whose cultural and linguistic heritage or ethnic identity is Arab . 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 . 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. Unlike other Arabs, the Druze are conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces . 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. 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. " "Enactment of a Nationality Law in Israel" " . The American Journal of Comparative Law . 2 (1). Between Israel's declaration of independence on 14 May 1948 and the passage of this bill four years later, there technically were no Israeli citizens. In this article, the term "Arab citizen" is used to refer to the Arab population in Israel, even in the period after the 1949 armistice agreement and before the passage of the Nationality Law in 1952. "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. An IDI Guttman Study of 2008 shows that most Arab citiens 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 Steven Dinero (2004).

Ethnic group Map of Arab population, 2000 Arab citizens of Israel is the Israeli government 's designation for non-Jewish Israeli citizens , the majority of whose cultural and linguistic heritage or ethnic identity is Arab or Palestinian and commonly self-designate as Palestinian citizens of Israel . The traditional vernacular of most Arab citizens, irrespective of religion, is 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. Israeli Mizrahi Jews are not usually considered to form part of this population. According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics , the Arab population in 2013 was estimated at 1,658,000, representing 20.7% of the country's population. The majority of these identify themselves as Arab or Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship . 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 and Druze tend to identify more as Israelis than other Arab citizens of Israel. Most of the Arabs living in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights , occupied by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed, were offered Israeli citizenship, but most have refused, not wanting to recognize Israel's claim to sovereignty. They have the right to apply for citizenship, are entitled to municipal services, and have municipal voting rights. The American Journal of Comparative Law . 2 (1). Between Israel's declaration of independence on 14 May 1948 and the passage of this bill four years later, there technically were no Israeli citizens. In this article, the phrase "Arab citizen" is used to refer to the Arab population in Israel, even in the period after the 1949 armistice agreement and before the passage of the Nationality Law in 1952. See the terminology section for an extended discussion of the various terms used to refer to this population. 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. An IDI Guttman Study of 2008 shows that most Arab citiens 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 Steven Dinero (2004). National Identities: 261– 275. : Cite journal requires |journal= ( help ) The Druze Minority in Israel in the Mid-1990s , by Gabriel Ben-Dor , Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs , 1995-06-01. Israel's Arab citizens: Key facts and current realities , UK Task Force , June 2012. "BBC News – Surge in East Jerusalem Palestinians losing residency" . news.bbc.co.uk. 2 December 2009 .

Israeli citizens who are Arab Ethnic group Map of Arabic speakers by locality, 2015 Arab citizens of Israel , or Arab Israelis , are Israeli citizens who are Arab . Many Arab citizens of Israel self-identify as Palestinian and commonly self-designate themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel or Israeli Palestinians . According to a 2017 survey by University of Haifa professor Sammy Smooha , 16% of the Arab population prefers the term " Israeli Arab ", while the largest and fastest growing proportion prefers " Palestinian in Israel ", and 17% prefer " Palestinian Arab ", rejecting entirely the identity of "Israeli". The traditional vernacular of most Arab citizens, irrespective of religion, is Levantine Arabic , including Lebanese Arabic in northern Israel, Palestinian dialect of Arabic in central Israel and Bedouin dialects across the Negev desert; having absorbed much Hebrew loanwords and phrases, the modern dialect of Arab citizens of Israel is defined by some as the Israeli Arabic dialect . 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 the Druze , among other religious communities. According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics , the Arab population in 2019 was estimated at 1,890,000, representing 20.95% of the country's population. The majority of these identify themselves as Arab or Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship . Arab citizens of Israel mostly live in Arab-majority towns and cities; eight of Israel's ten poorest cities are Arab. The vast majority attend separate schools to Jewish Israelis , and Arab political parties have never joined a government coalition. Many have family ties to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as to Palestinian refugees in Jordan , Syria and Lebanon . Galilee Bedouins, Negev Bedouins and the Druze tend to identify more as Israelis than other Arab citizens of Israel. The Arabs living in East Jerusalem and the Druze in the Golan Heights , occupied by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed, were offered Israeli citizenship, but most have refused, not wanting to recognize Israel's claim to sovereignty. They have the right to apply for citizenship, are entitled to municipal services and have municipal voting rights. Between Israel's declaration of independence on 14 May 1948 and the passage of this bill four years later, there technically were no Israeli citizens. In this article, the phrase "Arab citizen" is used to refer to the Arab population in Israel, even in the period after the 1949 armistice agreement and before the passage of the Nationality Law in 1952. See the terminology and self-identification sections for an extended discussion of the various terms used to refer to this population. The Creation of Israeli Arabic . Israel Central Bureau of Statistics . 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. 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 Jerusalem Post , 2015: "...join the coalition, which no Arab party has ever done"; Haaretz : "While no Arab party has ever joined the government"; Identity, Grievances, and Political Action: Recent Evidence from the Palestinian Community in Israel, International Political Science Review : "no Arab party has ever been part of an Israeli government coalition"; Freedom House , 2016: "No Arab party has ever been formally included in a governing coalition" 4 ways Jews and Arabs live apart in Israeli society , Ben Sales, April 12, 2016, Jewish Telegraphic Agency Spencer C. The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History [4 volumes]: A Political, Social, and Military History . The Druze Minority in Israel in the Mid-1990s , by Gabriel Ben-Dor , Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 1995-06-01.

Overview of the ethnic Arab citizens of the State of Israel Ethnic group The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country . They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship , mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic and Hebrew, and with varying social identities. Self-identification as Palestinian citizens of Israel has sharpened in recent years, alongside distinct identities including Galilee and Negev Bedouin , the Druze people , and Arab Christians and Arab Muslims who do not identify as Palestinians. In Arabic , commonly used terms to refer to Israel's Arab population include 48-Arab ( ) and 48-Palestinian ( ). Since the Nakba , the Palestinians that have remained within Israel's 1948 borders have been colloquially known as "48-Arabs". In Israel itself, Arab citizens are commonly referred to as Israeli-Arabs or simply as Arabs ; international media often uses the term Arab-Israeli to distinguish Arab citizens of Israel from the Palestinian Arabs residing in the Palestinian territories . The traditional vernacular of most Arab citizens of Israel, irrespective of their religious affiliation, is Levantine Arabic . This includes Lebanese Arabic in northern Israel, Palestinian Arabic in central Israel, and Bedouin dialects across the Negev ; having absorbed many Hebrew loanwords and phrases, the modern dialect of the Arab citizens of Israel is defined by some as the Israeli Arabic dialect . Most Arab citizens of Israel are functionally bilingual, with their second language being Hebrew. By religious affiliation, the majority are Sunni Muslims . However, there is a significant Christian minority from various Christian denominations , as well as a Druze minority , among other ethnic and religious communities. According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics , the Arab-Israeli population in 2023 was 2.1 million representing 21 percent of the country's population. The majority of these citizens identify themselves as Arab or Palestinian by nationality and as Israeli by citizenship . Arab citizens of Israel 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 of Jewish Israelis . Arab political parties traditionally did not join governing coalitions until the United Arab List became the first to do so in 2021. Many Arabs have family ties to Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as well as to Palestinian refugees in the neighbouring states of Jordan , Syria , and Lebanon . 60 percent of Israel's Arab citizens have a positive view of the Israeli state; the Druze as well as Bedouins in the Negev and the Galilee tend to identify more as Israelis than other Arab citizens of Israel. Under Israeli law , Arab residents of East Jerusalem and Druze residents of the Golan Heights (both Israeli-occupied territories ) have the right to apply for Israeli citizenship, are entitled to municipal services, and have municipal voting rights; this status is upheld due to Israel's effective annexation of the former through the Jerusalem Law of 1980 and of the latter through the Golan Heights Law of 1981. Both groups have largely foregone applying for Israeli citizenship, with the Palestinians of East Jerusalem and the Syrians of the Golan Heights mostly holding residency status. Arabs in Israel, by natural region (2018). Between Israel's declaration of independence on 14 May 1948 and the passage of this bill four years later, there technically were no Israeli citizens. In this article, the phrase "Arab citizen" is used to refer to the Arab population in Israel, even in the period after the 1949 armistice agreement and before the passage of the Nationality Law in 1952. The New York Times . Always a hybrid community — Israeli by citizenship, Palestinian by heritage, Muslim or Christian or Druze in religion, bilingual in Arabic and Hebrew, viewed with suspicion by some diaspora Palestinians, scarred by the trauma of their compatriots' expulsion — they developed a sharper sense of Palestinian identity even as their demands for full rights as Israeli citizens grew. Palestinian flags, rarely seen in Israel, appeared several times during the clashes. A May 18 general strike involved Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel, the first such joint labor protest in Israel and the occupied territories in decades. The people most Israelis have long referred to as "Israeli Arabs" — or colloquially by the demeaning "Arab sector" — now often self-identify as Palestinians, a term many Israeli Jews resent, viewing it as a rejection of Israel. "Long overlooked, Israel's Arab citizens are increasingly asserting their Palestinian identity" . 11 June 2021. Palestinians living within Israel's internationally recognized borders are often known colloquially as "the 48 Arabs", a reference to their origins. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled or were expelled during the 1948 war that erupted upon the creation of the state of Israel. Council on Foreign Relations . Here's what you need to know about their status in the country" . The Creation of Israeli Arabic . Israel Central Bureau of Statistics . 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. 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. The New York Times . The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History [4 volumes]: A Political, Social, and Military History . The Druze Minority in Israel in the Mid-1990s , by Gabriel Ben-Dor , Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 1995-06-01.

Ethnic group The Arab citizens of Israel form the country's largest ethnic minority. 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 . Notions of identity among Israel's Arab citizens are complex, encompassing civic, religious, and ethnic components. Some sources report that the majority of Arabs in Israel prefer to be identified as Palestinian citizens of Israel , while recent surveys indicate that most name "Israeli", "Israeli-Arab", or "Arab" as the most important components of their identity, reflecting a shift of " Israelization " among the community. 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. 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. 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. The majority of these Arab citizens identify themselves as Arab or Palestinian by nationality and as Israeli by citizenship. 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 . Arab political parties traditionally did not join governing coalitions until 2021, when the United Arab List became the first to do so. 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. 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 . By religious affiliation, the majority of Arab Israelis are Muslims, but there are significant Christian and Druze minorities, among others. 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 . Council on Foreign Relations . The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History [4 volumes]: A Political, Social, and Military History . 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%). After decades of calling themselves Israeli Arabs, which in Hebrew sounds like Arabs who belong to Israel, most now prefer Palestinian citizens of Israel. 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. Here's what you need to know about their status in the country" . 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. The New York Times . The Creation of Israeli Arabic . Israel Central Bureau of Statistics . The New York Times . There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ).