ARABS IN ISRAEL: COMPARATIVE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DATA

Palestinian Arab citizens make up 20% of Israel’s population, and these 1.2 million people are largely excluded from the benefits of citizenship and the national economy. Systematic discrimination by state and general public permeates every sphere of public and private life, including employment and social security. More than 50% of all Arab citizens inside the Green Line live below the poverty line, as compared to 16% of Jewish Israelis. The following aspects are relevant for Sawt el-Amel as an organisation defending the rights of Arab workers and unemployed in Israel: (1)

Employment

Only 19% of Arab citizens enter tertiary education (post 12th grade), compared to 43% of Jewish Israelis, and accordingly, more than 50% of the employed Arab labour force works in the manual labour sector (industry, manufacturing and agriculture), while only 24% of Jewish Israelis work in these low-wage and often temporary jobs. Moreover, almost all towns with an above-average unemployment rate are Arab localities. Thus, the vast majority of Arab citizens in Israel belong to what is traditionally considered the working class, though many workers and heads of households have been temporarily or permanently out of work.

Arab job-seekers are systematically denied employment in skilled and high-wage positions, particularly in public service and state-owned companies. For instance, only 2% of Israel’s high-tech employees are Arab, while they make up 10% of the country’s engineering graduates. Less than 1% of the approximately 50,000 employees of government companies are Arabs. The employment situation in the civil service is similar. For instance, only about 5% of Israel’s civil servants were Arabs, and 56% of whom work in the Health Ministry alone.

Insufficient infrastructure in Arab towns and villages, such as the lack of industrial zones, public transport and daycare facilities are also a major obstacle to employment. Notwithstanding the economic underdevelopment of most Arab localities, affirmative action schemes such as “development towns” with special state budget allocations are not implemented in the Arab sector.

Social Welfare

As a result of high unemployment, underemployment and low wages in the Arab community, many Arab citizens are dependent on social welfare. For example, only about 25% of Arab citizens currently have a pension scheme. At the same time, the government’s welfare-to-work project “Wisconsin Plan” forces many Arab families into abject poverty, as the Plan fails to provide solutions for the socio-economic and political root causes of unemployment among the Arab population. 

Organised Labour

Due to the employment patterns in the Arab workforce, which are dominated by temporary and sub-contracted labour and small family businesses, most Arab workers in Israel are not organised in trade unions. Historical and political factors, such as the Histadrut’s (Israeli Trade Union Congress) public sector focus and political closeness to the government, also play a role in the lack of trade union affiliation in the Arab workforce. There are no official statistics on the number of Arab members in the Histadrut, but estimates put trade union density among Arab workers at 15-20% (overall trade union density in Israel: ~ 25%).

Gender Issues

Poverty and unemployment have a particularly detrimental effect on women. In Israel, women make up 65% of recipients of social assistance. Arab women in Israel are particularly vulnerable to gender-related obstacles to employment and social security due to the above-mentioned infrastructural deficits which affect their mobility. As a result of this, combined with existing social patterns within Arab society, only about 18% of Arab women participate in the civilian labour force, compared to 55% of Jewish women. A report published by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour in 2008 concluded that Arab women are the most exploited group in the Israeli workforce. It found that 51% of Arab women work for the minimum wage or less and that their salaries average 47% of Jewish women’s wages. The survey further noted that unemployment among Arab women stood at 17%, compared to 8% among Jewish women.

Worker Solidarity

Furthermore, in 2008, Sawt el-Amel included a new target group into its mandate, namely citizens of Gaza who used to work for Israeli employers in the Erez industrial zone or inside Israel. Before second intifada, disengagement and hermetic closure, most of Gaza’s economic activity – import, export and labour - was dependent on Israel. Consequently, today, with Gaza under siege, economic activity – apart from clandestine activities - is virtually down to zero. In the early 2000s, at least 25,000 workers from Gaza worked in the settlement colonies, the Israel-controlled Erez industrial zone and inside Israel. Also this number is down to zero. Moreover, hardly any worker has received compensation for lost employment or social-security entitlements such as severance pay and social insurance benefits. And while they were working for Israeli employers, most workers from Gaza were paid far below the minimum wage. Today, mostly migrant workers and other ‘cheap-labour’ workers such as Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel and recent immigrants work for their former employers. The Gazan workforce is trapped inside Gaza, unemployed and dependent on foreign aid.