Arab and Jewish Israelis Reconciliation as Economic factor

Status: 21.06.2021 6:04 p.m.

After the change of government in Israel, the multi-party coalition is faced with difficult tasks, above all the reconciliation between Israelis and Arabs. That would also help the country economically.

By Till Rüger, Muhamed Abofani and Mike Lingenfelser, ARD studio Tel Aviv

For the first time, Arab MPs are part of one Ruling coalition in Israel. The Islamic Ra’am party of Mansour Abbas provided the decisive votes for the so-called “Coalition of Change” of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. With a wafer-thin majority of just one vote it became so Long-term Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voted out of the Likud. A historic moment for an underrated minority. Arab Israelis now make up around 21 percent of Israel’s citizens – and their number is growing. Officially, they have the same rights and duties as Jewish Israelis. But many feel disadvantaged, for example when it comes to job placement or training.

Feeling of second class citizens

The villages and residential areas of the Arab Israelis also usually have poorer infrastructure. They suffer from a high level of crime, which the police have so far failed to combat. Many Israeli Arabs therefore see themselves as second-class citizens. In its Inaugural address to the Knesset , the Israeli parliament, said the new Prime Minister Bennet of the right-wing Yamina party that his new government was opening a new chapter in relations with fellow Arabs. He wanted to eliminate imbalances in education and alleviate the housing shortage of the Bedouins in the south. Everyone has the right to live in dignity. During the eleven days of rocket bombardment from the Gaza Strip, the conflict broke out even more clearly than usual. Many cities and villages with a mixed population of Arab and Jewish Israelis such as Lod, Akko and Jaffo experienced the worst unrest in decades. The deep crack became visible even where both groups had previously lived largely peacefully together.

06/18/2021

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid The new tone from Israel

Israel’s Foreign Minister Lapid is considered to be the architect of the new government.

Deep distrust with historical roots

Almost all Arab Israelis lived in what is now Israel’s territory before the establishment of Israel in 1948. In the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, they did not flee and were not expelled. Many see themselves as sisters and brothers of the Palestinians in the West Bank or Gaza Strip.

After the recent unrest, many Jewish Israelis avoided the Arab residential areas, including some areas of Jaffo, the district in the south of Tel Aviv. The pubs and restaurants in Jaffo had reported up to 70 percent fewer Jewish guests than before the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. During the unrest, the government imposed curfews and cordoned off entire streets, but otherwise did little to counter the deep-seated mutual distrust.

portrait 06/07/2021

Formation of government in Israel Naftali Bennett – hardliner on target?

With an anti-Netanyahu coalition, Bennett could become Israeli Prime Minister.

Arab Israelis as an important economic factor

Private initiatives are different. The Israeli insurance company Harel, for example, posted large posters on Tel Aviv’s city motorway in Hebrew and Arabic: “The best insurance against violence is coexistence.” Many other companies followed suit with commercials and newspaper advertisements. Because the Arab Israelis are an important economic factor.

It was not until the later 1970s that a visible number of Arab Israelis began studying at an Israeli university, primarily in engineering, pharmacy and teaching. In the early 1990s, agriculture and the textile industry went downhill in Israel. Many Arab Israelis were active there.

“The best insurance against violence is coexistence” – poster of the Harel concern. Image: Till Rüger

At the same time, Russian immigrants came into the country. More than a million new homes had to be built, and so the Arab Israelis got access to a new economic sector: housing, road construction, electricity and gas management.

portrait 06/13/2021

Ex-Prime Minister Netanyahu “King Bibi” or the splitter of Israel?

After the formation of a government in Israel, Netanyahu is politically at an end. Portrait of the “King of Israel”.

Locked out of the software industry

Around the year 2000 there was a small high-tech miracle in Israel: Many Israeli software companies were able to establish themselves worldwide. But this industry remained closed to the Arab Israelis because, among other things, it had to do with security issues. Many Arab computer scientists were not permanently employed.

Since then, the Arab Israelis have almost only chosen professions in which they could certainly find a job, for example in medicine or pharmacy. Many saw a solid education as the only way to improve economically. The Arab villages in Israel are now competing with each other to see who has more doctors per 1,000 inhabitants. Pharmacy and medicine are often dominated by the well-trained doctors and pharmacists from the Arab minority. In recent years, the Arab Israelis have rediscovered the high-tech industry. This is suffering from underemployment in Israel, and many start-ups are desperately looking for well-trained employees – a new opportunity for the Arab Israelis.

comment 06/14/2021

New government in Israel After the euphoria, the uncomfortable questions wait

In the medium term, the new Israeli government will have to ask itself uncomfortable questions, says Benjamin Hammer.

Unequal distribution of the workforce

If you look at the total number of employees, then the Jewish Israelis come to a good 83 percent. Conversely, this would mean that the Arab Israelis, together with the large number of Asian guest workers, make up less than 17 percent of the workforce in the country.

If you take a look at the figures from the Israeli statistics agency exactly where and how Arab Israelis are employed today, the distribution looks like this: 13 percent are unskilled, 42 percent are skilled workers in industry and construction. Two percent work in agriculture, 15 percent in the service sector, three percent in administration, five percent are engineers, eleven percent are academics and five percent run a company. The labor force participation of Jewish Israelis aged 15 and over was 65.0 percent in 2019, while that of Arab Israelis aged 15 and older was only 43.4 percent, mainly due to the significantly lower labor force participation of women.

15.09.2020

Exports to the UAE Israel’s profit of peace

Many companies in Israel are euphoric about the peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates.

Reconciliation as the primary goal

The reconciliation of the two population groups – also for economic reasons – is likely to become one of the most important tasks of the new government of Prime Minister Bennett and his Vice Yair Lapid of the liberal Center Party.

Only when the inner-Israeli conflict has calmed down, according to Middle East observers, the new government can look to the West Bank and Gaza again and tackle the peace process with the Palestinians, which has come to a complete standstill