Israel's Different Citizen Classes

surferdude

I'm looking at learning about the different classes of citizenship that Israel grants people, and what rights some with each class. I've googles a few sites but would like too make sure I get a wide variety of takes on it. Please recommend some sites for me to learn from. Everything I've learned so far is pretty disturbing, so I want to make sure I'm getting a balanced point of view.

Ahnimus

I recommend Israel's own ADVA and the World Zionist Organization

ADVA wrote:

The gap between rich and poor

Economic inequality in Israel is growing. Israel, a social report, 1998, published by the Adva Center for Equality and Social Justice in Israel, reports that in 1988 the top decile of the population received 8.4 times the share of the bottom decile. By 1996, the figure had increased to 10.6. Top salaries in Israel are high and rising. The average monthly salary of a manager in a Stock Exchange listed company was NIS 96,000 (about $24,000) in 1997. 259 managers had salaries of over NIS 100,000 a month, and 54 earned over NIS 200,000. At the same time, while top managers’ salaries are on a par with those in Europe and the US, Israeli industrial workers’ wages have been on the decline. Most Israeli workers earn less than the national average wage (NIS 5899 in 1998); in 1995, over 65% earned less. Moreover, the proportion of Israelis below the poverty line is on the increase, from 23.8% in 1979 to 30.3% in 1996. One third of all Israeli children live in poverty.

The status of women

Israel boasts some of the world’s most progressive legislation guaranteeing equal rights and opportunities to women, especially in the workplace. But the reality is quite different. The Adva center reports that on average, women’s monthly wages are 60% of men’s. Some of this difference is due to the fact that more women than men work part time. But even when calculations are based on an hourly wage, women earn 80% of men’s average salaries. In addition, many women are prevented from working full time by the lack of childcare provision. Day care centers only serve about one-fifth of children under the age of four. Kindergartens only operate in the morning, leaving the problem of what to do with the children in the afternoon. The situation with primary schools is the same. Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s 1999 election campaign promised the introduction of a long school day, but so far this has not been implemented.

Israeli women are victims of endemic violence, both domestic and sexual. In an Israel Women’s Network report on the status of women in Israel, Shoshana London Sappir records that in the first three months of 2000, six Israeli women were murdered by their partners. In 1999, 17 women and six children were killed in domestic violence. One third of Israeli women will be a victim of sexual assault or rape in their lifetimes. A rape is committed every 12 hours and other types of sexual assault every four hours. A network of voluntary organisations exists to deal with these problems on the therapeutic and educational fronts, but meagre government resources are devoted to the problem.

Israeli Arabs

Israeli Arabs (plus Druze, Circassians and other non-Jewish ethnic groups) make up one fifth of the Israeli population. They are guaranteed equal rights by the Declaration of Independence. Nevertheless, they are victims of institutionalised discrimination. Arab towns and villages receive lower levels of government funding than their Jewish equivalents. Arab citizens earn lower salaries than their Jewish counterparts; according to the Adva report, Ashkenazi Jewish employees’ pay is on average twice as much as Arab wage earners. There are no signs that this gap is closing; the inequality remains stable. Inequality also exists in education. Among the general population only 37.7% of students matriculate from high school (a precondition for progressing to higher education), and the figure in the Arab community is even lower: 21.9%. And while only 6% of students in affluent Jewish localities drop out before completing the 12th grade, in Arab areas the rate is 42%. Finally, the Arab infant mortality rate remains double that of Jews.

In addition to socio-economic inequality, Israeli Arabs face another problem: one of identity. They live in a state whose definition as a Jewish State excludes or alienates them. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians (with whom most Israeli Arabs identify) exacerbates these problems, leaving Israeli Arabs in a state of internal conflict. Azmi Bishara, a leading Arab Member of Knesset, takes the following position on the status of Israeli Arabs: "I want Israel to be a society which officially recognises itself as a state which contains two cultures, a Jewish majority culture, the other, a Palestinian national minority living inside a Jewish majority, sharing citizenship.... The state itself may have the cultural character of the majority, but its relationship to citizens must be regulated by citizenship and not by their religious identity – in short, I want Israel to become a state of all its citizens." (Tikkun Magazine, 3:4)

These inequalities between rich and poor, men and women and Jews and Arabs by no means paints a full picture of social injustice in Israel, a picture that includes discrimination against disabled people, gays and lesbians, foreign workers, Mizrahi (oriental) Jews and more.

http://www.wzo.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=10

shiraz

surferdude wrote:

I'm looking at learning about the different classes of citizenship that Israel grants people, and what rights some with each class. I've googles a few sites but would like too make sure I get a wide variety of takes on it. Please recommend some sites for me to learn from. Everything I've learned so far is pretty disturbing, so I want to make sure I'm getting a balanced point of view.

One discriminative thing is jews have the right to come live in Israel, its like an automatic potential secondary citizenship. Other than that, there is NO discriminative policy against ISRAELI arab (=citizens). Eastern Jerusalem arabs are related to the Palestinian authority, who is an intermediate stage of Palestinian govt for the future Palestinian country. This situation causes LOTS of problems, because there's *still* no such thing as Palestinian country - it is Basically an autonomy inside Israel. Its a very Complicated situation. Palestinians are like foreign citizes In Isreal: If they want to work inside Israel they need to get an aprove (not that easy), they can not vote for Isreali elections. They do have Israeli social security support, but can not necessarily use all of its benefits. Also, Israel is restricting their movement inside Palestine by using road blocks, In order to prevent as mush as we can suicide bombing & terror attacks from being held in Isreal. Most of us Israeli's really don't like that restricting, I personally think its immoral. The Palestinians getting their electricity, water (disputed issue), communications (phone lines) and some medical services (advaced treatments for cancer, for example, but that's being held inside Israel and depends on those stupid approvals) from Israel.

I can go on and on but I think you are getting the sad picture. The fact that Palestinian is an autonomy inside Israel and not yet an independent country, causes most of problems regarding Palestinians rights.

shiraz

Ahnimus wrote:

I recommend Israel's own ADVA and the World Zionist Organization



http://www.wzo.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=10

Some of the details here are now irelevant (maybe it's an old adva articale, I don't know).