Israeli-Arab Poverty Increasing

(Translated from Halaretz, April 1, 1988)

Over 40 percent of Israeli Arab families live below the poverty line. Poor families in the Arab sector suffer from undernourishment, and also from severe housing shortages and assorted health problems. Since the mid-1970s, the situation of poor Arab families has deteriorated, and even more are being caught in the cycle of poverty.

These and other findings are revealed in a comprehensive research project entitled "Needs and Welfare Services in the Arab Sector," sponsored by the International Center for Peace in the Middle East under the direction of Professor Neufeld. This is the first research project of its kind; data on the Arab sector is usually not readily available. This, too, is probably a deliberate policy. The research also reveals an enormous gap between the living standards of poor Arabs and poor people in the Jewish sector. A substantial number of poor in the Arab sector cannot supply basic commodities for members of their family, like furniture, clothing, and school books for their children.

Since 1970, the portion of Arab families living in overcrowded conditions has grown from 35 to 61 percent of all families who live in overcrowded conditions in Israel. The research concluded that the shortage of welfare services for Arabs is a result of discriminatory government policies towards the Arab sector in all fields.

Israeli-Arab Income Half That of Jews

(Translated from Hadashot, April 1)

Israeli Arabs constitute the hard-core poverty strata in Israel, according to statistical data available. The average per-capita income among Israeli Arabs amounts to half the average income of Jews, while the density of housing is twice as high. Among the 101 poorest neighborhoods in Israel, 100 are Arab and one is Jewish.

The situation of the lowest 10th of Jewish wage earners is better than the situation of the upper 10th of Arab wage earners. The fact that Arabs constitute the majority of plasterers and construction workers in Israel is obvious. They also supply about one-third of the unskilled laborers in industry. There are also professions from which Arabs are almost absent: the diamond processing industry, data processing, and banking and insurance companies. Only in the Department of Moslem Religious Services, which is operated by the Ministry of Religion, is there a decisive Arab majority. It is interesting that 15 percent of all employees even in this department are Jewish, most of them of European origin.

Lack of Basic Services

In 1983, there were only 260 Jewish families of six members or more who lived in one-room apartments, but there were 3,100 Arab families living in such crowded conditions. Over 90 percent of Arab senior citizens who are destitute have no telephone, 80 percent have no television, 37 percent have no heat in winter, and 24 percent have no toilet facilities or hot water. Only 1 percent of the building projects undertaken by the Ministry of Housing are carried out in Arab localities.

Jewish municipalities receive on the average twice the monetary allocations that are given to Arab local councils, and the government doesn't contribute a single shekel to the welfare budgets of most Arab localities. The Ministry of Education allocates teaching hours in schools according to the average number of schoolchildren. Most Jewish elementary schools get 30 percent more than the Arab schools, and in secondary schools the gap reaches 50 percent.