How Israel’s Arab Citizens Fare in an Unequal Society

The most serious clashes in decades between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel erupted in several cities in parallel with Israel’s fourth major conflict with the militant Palestinian Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip. It was a new turn of events that shocked many in the country. For Israel’s Arabs, years of frustration with being treated as second-class citizens rose to the surface, compounding anger over Israel’s conduct toward the Palestinians. Mobs of Jews, some feeling threatened by the Arab rioting and others extremists shouting “Death to Arabs,” fought back. Reinforced police crews stamped out the violence, but the underlying tensions remain.

At nearly 2 million people, Arabs make up more than 20% of Israel’s population. Most descended from Palestinians who were not expelled or did not flee during the fighting surrounding Israel’s 1948 independence. Apart from a large community in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, they live in the less-densely populated northern and southern parts of the country, away from the economic heartland. Arabs in Israel are not a monolith; they differ in religious and tribal backgrounds and attitudes toward the state. They are not conscripted into the military, though a tiny minority do enlist, eliciting disapproval from most in the community, who are unwilling to take up arms against their Palestinian relatives and friends.