Arab citizens:
A national 2008 study, conducted in both Hebrew and Arabic, found that:
- 77% of Arab citizens would rather live in Israel than in any other country in the world.
- 68% of Jewish citizens support teaching conversational Arabic in Jewish schools to help bring Arab and Jewish citizens together.
- A great majority of both Jewish citizens (73%) and Arab citizens (94%) want Israel to be a society in which Arab and Jewish citizens have mutual respect and equal opportunities.
- Arab citizens and Jewish citizens both underestimate their communities’ liking of the “other.”
Conclusion: It appears that Arab and Israeli citizens coexist more peacefully than outsiders often assume.
Moreover:
- Arabs in Israel have equal rights under the law.
- Arabs in Israel can vote for whomever they want – including Arab women. In most Arab countries, women do not have the right to vote.
- Arabs in Israel can worship freely – or reject religion, if they so wish (unlike in many Arab countries, where Islam is forced upon all citizens.)
- Arabs in Israel have the freedom of speech (unlike in most Arab countries.) They have their own newspapers, and they have the right to peacefully protest.
- Arabs in Israel are entitled to the full same state education as all other Israelis.
- Arabs are members of the Israeli parliament and ministers in the government. Over 1/10th of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, is Arab. There is even a mosque in the Knesset building for those who are Muslim.
Conclusion: As many Arab-Israeli journalists state, Arab citizens have far more freedom in Israel than they do in Arab countries.
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Palestinian “permanent residents” (non-citizens):
Palestinians are offered Israeli citizenship, but most reject it.
- At the time of Israel’s founding in 1948, all Palestinian “refugees” were offered Israeli citizenship. However, most rejected this offer, as they did not want to identify themselves with the Jewish state. Thus, they identify as “refugees” by choice.
- As of today, the Palestinians of the West Bank (East Jerusalem) are still offered Israeli citizenship. Most still reject this offer, viewing it as an act of disloyalty to the Palestinian government.
- Nonetheless, the number of Palestinians who accept Israeli citizenship has risen dramatically in recent years.
- Today, most Israeli Arabs – about 20% of Israeli citizens – identify as “Palestinian” by ethnicity.
- The blue “identification cards” that Palestinian citizens carry are merely to prove that they are permanent residents. They are not “racial identification cards” as anti-Israel activists like to claim.
Palestinians’ rights as “permanent residents” of Israel:
- To live, work, and travel freely through Israel without the necessity of special permits
- To vote in local elections
- To purchase property in Israel
- To receive welfare payments from the Israeli government
- Eligibility for national health insurance
Disadvantages of permanent residency (vs. citizenship)
- After leaving Israel and living abroad for seven years, permanent residents may lose their official residency status in Israel. (Citizens, on the other hand, have an automatic right-of-return.)
- Spouses of permanent residents must apply for residency status; it is not automatically granted to them.
- The same is true for the children of permanent residents; parents must apply for their children to have official residency status.
- Cannot vote in national elections
Comparison with other Arab countries:
- In neighboring Arab countries, Palestinians face severe racism. For example, according to the Jordan Times newspaper:
In Lebanon, under the Lebanese labor law that governs foreigners, Palestinians are denied 74 forms of employment.
In Lebanon, Palestinians face tight exit and entry requirements.
In Lebanon, Palestinians are not allowed citizenship.
In Lebanon, Palestinians are confined to 12 camps with no medical, social or educational services from the government and are barred in some of those camps from building or even repairing homes.
Conclusions: Palestinians choose not to be Israeli citizens. Meanwhile, although neighboring Arab nations decry Israel for unequal treatment of Palestinians, those nations do not welcome Palestinians either; they would rather keep Israel as their scapegoat.
The Case for Israel | Stanford Israel Alliance