By Wikipedia As Israeli Apartheid Week nears, the government on Monday unveiled its latest initiative aimed at debunking the analogy made by Palestinian…
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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 drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, just like Jews. 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.
