When the intifada erupted in 2000, Jewish Israelis were shocked when some of their Arab countrymen joined in the violence, blocking roads and rioting until suppressed by the police with lethal force. By the time peace was restored, one Jew and thirteen Arabs had died. This prompted the government to create a three-person investigatory commission, chaired by Supreme Court justice Theodor Or and including an Arab judge, Hashim Khatib. While criticising the police for excessive force and Arab community leaders for incitement, the commission’s report homed in on the problem of inequality: ‘Government handling of the Arab sector has been primarily neglectful and discriminatory. The establishment did not show sufficient sensitivity to the needs of the Arab population, and did not take enough action in order to allocate state resources in an equal manner. The state did not do enough or try hard enough to create equality for its Arab citizens or to uproot discriminatory or unjust phenomenon.’

Since then, liberal Jewish and Arab-Israeli NGOs have monitored government efforts to promote greater equality. While they consistently find that not enough has been done or that the results have not been sufficient, nonetheless, Israel has done better in evening out socioeconomic differences than most countries encompassing sharply diverse nationalities.

Read the article in full at Fathom Journal.