One in five: Israeli Arabs: Exclusion and life at the bottom of the social pyramid

The article discusses various facets of the exclusion of Arab citizens by the Jewishmajority since the establishment of Israel, whose founding fathers promised in theDeclaration of Independence that it would be a Jewish democratic state. It shows how theJewish majority, comprising 75.5% of all citizens, labels Arab citizens "others" or"deviating from the advisable standard"; and explains why Israeli Arabs - comprising20.5% of Israel's citizens - are a peripheral minority. The article elaborates on the controlthat the Jewish majority wields over the resources of Israeli society. It also focuses onpower differences between the two sectors, explaining that they have led to exclusion ofthe Arab minority.The article further enumerates three main exclusion mechanisms: 1.The militaryadministration (1948 - 1966) as a means of exclusion; 2. Ecological isolation as a meansof exclusion; 3. The labour market as a means of exclusion. The background andsignificance of each of these mechanisms is explained and described. The effect ofexclusion from the labour market on the Arab minority's increasing poverty isparticularly emphasized and illustrated by recent data. The final part of the article isdedicated to explaining the attitude of the majority group towards the minority group.