Over half of all Israeli Arab families are poor - study

58.2% of all Israeli Arab individuals and 64.3% of all Israeli Arab children are poor.

By DAN IZENBERG
israeli arab 88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
israeli arab 88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
More than 56 percent of all the families in the Israeli Arab sector are poor, according to figures released Tuesday from a study on Israeli Arab society published by the United Kibbutz and the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem. The Van Leer Institute is due Wednesday to hold a symposium on what it describes as the "deepening poverty and the continuing gaps between Jews and Arabs in all spheres of life." Speakers will include retired Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar, Hebrew University law professor Mordechai Kremnitzer, Hebrew University political scientist Shlomo Avineri and the director-general of the Arab-Israeli human rights organization Adalah. In a statement released on the eve of the symposium, the Van Leer Institute provided figures from the study, entitled "The Arab Society in Israel (2)," which provided statistics demonstrating how serious the situation was. According to the study, 58.2% of all Israeli Arab individuals and 64.3% of all Israeli Arab children are poor. Figures for the Beduin community in the Negev showed that 76.6% of all families, 79.4% of all individuals and 81.9% of all the sector's children are poor. The figures also show that only 35.6% of Beduin children in the Negev graduate from high school and that the unemployment rate in the unrecognized Beduin villages in the Negev is 17.1%. Twenty-two percent of the families in these villages live off welfare. The symposium will be held Wednesday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.