Arab Citizens of Israel

Population totals depend on the year, geographic scope, and classification used. At the end of 2013, 1,683,200 Arabs were counted in Israel, including approximately 305,000 Arab residents of East Jerusalem. Excluding those residents, the number of Arab citizens was 1,378,200, or 17.6 percent of Israel’s citizen population. Most East Jerusalem residents held permanent-resident status rather than citizenship and could vote in municipal but not Knesset elections.[1]

At the end of 2020, the Arab population numbered 1.96 million, or 21.1 percent of Israel’s total population, but that total included East Jerusalem residents who were not all citizens. An estimate of 1.3 million Muslim citizens excluded Muslim Arabs in East Jerusalem who were not citizens.[3] A Congressional Research Service report published in 2022 estimated that Arab Israelis made up nearly 20 percent of the population; the figure reflects the report’s date and is not a current count.[4]

A later Central Bureau of Statistics release provides another snapshot. On the eve of Independence Day in April 2026, it counted 2.157 million Arabs, or 21.1 percent of the total population. The preliminary figures were based on the 2022 census and updated to April 22, 2026; the release defined the Arab population group as Muslims, Arab Christians, and Druze.[5] This was a population-group figure, not an independently stated count of citizens alone. A 2025 figure similarly counted 2.114 million Arabs, or 20.9 percent of the population, without stating that everyone in the category was an Israeli citizen.[6]

Classification systems do not always align. CBS methodology classifies Arabs as Muslims, including Circassians; Arab Christians, including Armenians; and Druze. It defines “Others” as including non-Arab Christians, members of other religions, and people not classified by religion in the Population Register. Before the 1995 census, “Others” were included in the Arab population, and population-group and religion classifications were not identical.[7] A Jewish Virtual Library overview, by contrast, describes the Druze as a separate cultural, social, and religious community and distinguishes Circassians from Arabs by origin and cultural background.[2] Statistical categories do not determine how every individual identifies.

The Foreign Ministry’s minority-communities page displays estimates of over 1.2 million Muslim Arabs, approximately 250,000 Bedouin Arabs, some 123,000 Christian Arabs, and some 122,000 Druze. It separately describes approximately 4,000 Circassians concentrated in two northern villages.[8] These displayed estimates should not be treated as a current count or added mechanically to totals based on other definitions and dates.

A 2019 Central Bureau of Statistics figure cited by the Ben-Gurion University Research Portal counted about 1.9 million Arabs, of whom just over 1.6 million were Muslims—about 82 percent.[9]

For the end of 2013, the INSS memorandum reported that Arab citizens were 81.7 percent Muslim, 8.6 percent Christian, and 9.7 percent Druze. It described the Triangle and Negev populations as Muslim, while the North, Jerusalem area, and mixed cities included Muslims, Christians, and Druze.[1] These were dated figures concerning citizens after the memorandum excluded East Jerusalem residents from its citizen total.

Sources also group communities differently. A Jewish Virtual Library overview presents Muslims, Christian Arabs, Druze, Bedouins, and Circassians as communities with distinct identities, while the INSS memorandum explains why including Druze within collective Arab labels is contested.[2][1] Arab citizens generally are exempt from compulsory military service, while service is mandatory for Druze and Circassian men.[2] Population categories, religious affiliation, legal status, and individual identity are therefore not necessarily the same.

The population now described as Arab citizens of Israel includes people who lived in the area before the state’s establishment and their descendants. One overview describes most Arab citizens in those terms, while another says the vast majority descend from Palestinians who remained inside Israel after the 1948 War of Independence.[2][10] These are broad historical patterns, not descriptions of every person’s family history or identity.

A Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs account estimates that about 160,000 Arabs remained in the newly established state at the end of the War of Independence, including 111,500 Muslims, 34,000 Christians, and 14,500 Druze and members of smaller groups. It says those who remained under Israeli law were granted citizenship, which the article characterizes as “restricted.” It also describes mobility and civic-role restrictions under military government, which ended in 1966.[11] These claims are presented as the account of an opinion-commentary source.

The broader conflict involved large-scale displacement. My Jewish Learning reports that approximately 700,000 Arabs fled or were driven from their homes during the War of Independence, which Palestinians call the Nakba, or “the catastrophe.”[10] This estimate and terminology are part of the source’s account of a politically contested history and should not be confused with the separate estimate of those who remained inside Israel.

Territorial and legal changes also affect the category’s boundaries. After the 1967 war, the Israeli government granted Arabs living in East Jerusalem resident status rather than Israeli citizenship while allowing them to retain Jordanian citizenship.[12] A person’s inclusion in an Arab population total therefore does not establish that the person is an Israeli citizen.

Arab communities live in the Galilee, the Triangle, the Negev, and mixed cities including Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Ramla, and Lod.[9] The INSS memorandum describes the Triangle and Negev populations as Muslim, while the North, Jerusalem area, and mixed cities included Muslims, Christians, and Druze.[1]

A Jewish Virtual Library overview describes Arabic-language literature, theater, and mass media, a separate Arab and Druze school system, and Muslim, Druze, and Christian denominational courts for personal-status matters.[2] These institutions and cultural forms are part of a varied public life but do not imply that all Arabic-speaking citizens share the same religious or political outlook.

Terms used for the population vary. “Arab citizens of Israel,” “Arab Israelis,” and “Palestinian citizens of Israel” appear across the sources but are not interchangeable personal identifications. A Tikvah Ideas/Mosaic column discusses a Haaretz op-ed in which Hanin Majadli explained why she preferred “a Palestinian citizen of Israel,” and notes that terminology has been disputed since Israel’s creation.[13] My Jewish Learning likewise describes changing preferences and competing survey findings concerning Arab, Israeli, and Palestinian labels.[10]

Different accounts describe identity as layered or changing. A 2023 report discusses Palestinian Arab nationalism, Islamic belief, and everyday life as citizens of the Jewish state as elements that may coexist in individual identities. It reports that Nuseir Yassin adopted “Palestinian-Israeli” and later “Israeli-Palestinian,” while social activist Mohammad Darawshe described Arab citizens as balancing Palestinian and Israeli civic, social, and economic identities.[14] These are individual and reported perspectives, not a single definition shared by the population.

An INSS table summarizing Sammy Smooha’s surveys reports that from 1995 to 2012 the share choosing “Israeli, Israeli-Arab, Arab in Israel” fell from 53.6 to 32.6 percent, while the share choosing “Palestinian, Palestinian-Arab” rose from 10.3 to 21.5 percent.[1] The memorandum cautions that broader categories in its separate summary of 2012 responses are not identical to those in the table. The figures are tied to specified survey categories and dates and should not be treated as a complete or timeless account of identity.

Arab citizens participate in national and municipal elections, administer municipalities, and elect representatives to the Knesset.[2] The INSS memorandum distinguishes four streams in Arab politics: an Arab-Israeli or Zionist stream, an Arab-Jewish Communist or non-Zionist stream, an Islamist stream, and a national stream. These are political currents rather than a unified position, and not all participated in parliamentary elections.[1]

The Communist stream has participated in Israeli politics since the First Knesset in 1949 and continued through Hadash. The national stream included the Progressive List for Peace, represented in the Knesset in 1984 and 1988, and Balad, which first participated in Knesset elections in 1996. Walid Sadik Hajj-Yahia, a Meretz Knesset member from 1992 to 1999, is associated in the memorandum with the Arab-Israeli stream.[1]

Voting patterns changed substantially over the period covered by the memorandum. The share of Arab voters choosing Jewish Zionist parties fell from 52.3 percent in 1992 to 16.8 percent in 2015. Turnout was 56.5 percent in 2013 and 63.5 percent in 2015, with the Joint List campaign described as a possible turning point. Ideological opposition, disappointment with Israeli politics, and protest at Arab parties’ failure to unite were identified as reasons some voters abstained.[1]

The memorandum identifies Azmi Bishara as founder of the National Democratic Assembly in the mid-1990s and its Knesset member from 1996 to 2007. It names Jamal Zahalka as an NDA Knesset member from 2003 and Ahmad Tibi as head of Ta’al, the Arab Movement for Renewal.[1] These examples illustrate the range of parties and political leaders rather than providing a complete list.

Ayman Odeh is an attorney and former Haifa City Council member who became Hadash’s secretary-general in 2006 and was elected party leader before the 2015 election. He then led Hadash into the Joint List.[15][16] Under his leadership, the Joint List reached 15 Knesset seats, which Ynet describes as a record for an Arab party in the Knesset.[17]

The distinction between Odeh’s 2006 appointment as secretary-general and his election as party leader before 2015 resolves apparently differing leadership dates in the sources.[15][16] Odeh rejected calls to boycott elections, arguing that decisions affecting Arab communities should not be made without their participation.[15] Ynet reports that he supports a two-state solution, including a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders alongside Israel, and a right of return for Palestinian refugees accompanied by a solution that would not cause injustice to others.[17] In September 2019, the Joint List recommended Benny Gantz to the president as the person to form a government, while Balad opposed the recommendation.[17]

Mansour Abbas, a dentist and leader of the United Arab List, or Ra’am, entered the Knesset in 2019.[18][19] In June 2021, Ra’am joined the coalition led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, becoming the first independent Arab party to serve as a formal coalition partner in an Israeli government.[18] It received no ministerial portfolio but secured commitments relating to development, infrastructure, Bedouin planning, and anti-crime programs after breaking from the Joint List.[18][19]

Earlier Arab parties had held Knesset seats or supported governments without formally joining their coalitions. The INSS memorandum describes the Arab parties during the second Rabin government of 1992–1996 as an “ex-coalition bloc” that supported the government on many issues.[1]

Arab citizens have served in the Knesset, government offices, the judiciary, and diplomatic posts.[2][10] These examples demonstrate participation across Israeli institutions but do not measure how broadly opportunities are distributed.

Abdel Rahman Zuabi became the first Arab to sit on Israel’s Supreme Court when he took his seat on March 3, 1999. He had served as deputy president of the Nazareth District Court and received a nine-month appointment.[20] Salim Joubran was selected in 2004 as the first Arab to hold a permanent Supreme Court appointment after serving in the Haifa Magistrate’s and District Courts.[20]

Joubran, a Christian who grew up in Haifa, practiced law privately from 1970 to 1982, joined the Haifa Magistrate’s Court, and was appointed to the Haifa District Court in 1993. He was elevated to the Supreme Court in 2003, initially as an acting justice, and later became a permanent member. In 2015 he became the first Arab Israeli to chair the Central Elections Committee. He served as deputy president of the Supreme Court from June 2017 and retired that August.[21] Another account identifies him as the first Arab with a permanent seat on the Court, serving from 2004 to 2017 after a temporary appointment in 2003.[22]

In 2012, Joubran did not sing Israel’s national anthem at a swearing-in ceremony, drawing criticism from some on the right. His predecessor, Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, supported the position that non-Jewish citizens should stand respectfully but need not sing words that do not speak to them. At his 2017 retirement, Joubran called for greater integration and development for the Arab minority and more Arab judges.[21]

Emile Habibi was a Christian Arab poet and Knesset member born in Haifa. After 1948 he helped found the Israeli Communist Party and served in the Knesset on its behalf. He left the Knesset in 1972 to focus on editing Al-Ittihad and literary work. In 1992 he received the Israel Prize for literature and poetry, and his tombstone bears the words “I Stayed in Haifa.”[23]

Sayed Kashua, a Palestinian-Israeli author and columnist born in Tira in the Arab Triangle, attended the Israel Arts and Science Academy in Jerusalem and wrote mostly in Hebrew about being an outsider.[24] Mira Awad, an Arab Christian from the Galilee, became a singer and actress, studied at the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and moved to Tel Aviv. In 2009 she became the first Arab to represent Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest.[25]

Rana Raslan of Haifa became the first Arab woman named Miss Israel in 1999. She said, “I am totally Israeli,” and that the pageant sought “a beauty queen, not a political queen.”[26]

Lucy Aharish became a prominent Arab-Israeli journalist and presenter. She grew up in Dimona, studied theater and political science at Hebrew University and journalism at Tel Aviv’s Koteret school, and began working at Channel 10 in 2007. She was described as Israel’s first Arab news presenter and later reported on Palestinian affairs from the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria.[27] Ynet describes her as the first Arab in Israel to present news in Hebrew and lists work at Channel 10, Channel 1, i24news, and other television programs.[28]

Aharish was invited to light a torch at Israel’s 67th Independence Day ceremony, held under the theme “Israelis breaking new ground.” She said the honor belonged to the family that had raised her in a particular way.[29]

Aharish has described her identity by saying, “I say that I am Israeli. I’m not ashamed of my Israeliness. Then I’m a woman and then I’m an Arab Muslim.” She also acknowledged racism and unequal rights while saying, “I am not a victim of Israel; I am a human being and a citizen.”[27] These were her expressed views rather than a description of Arab citizens generally.

A 2023 first-person essay says that by 2020 Arabs made up about 20 percent of Israel’s population and nearly half of recipients of Israeli medical licenses. It also says Arabs accounted for half of new nurses, more than half of dentists, and 57 percent of pharmacists.[30] The figures represent the essay’s account of its stated period.

After the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack, a report described Bedouin Arab Youssef Ziadna of Rahat as having rescued more than 30 Jewish people from the massacre, attributing the account to activist Yoseph Haddad. Ziadna was quoted as saying, “I’m an Israeli and there were Israelis there, and if I can help them why wouldn’t I help them.”[14] The same report profiles Louis Haj, an Arab resident of Acre, social activist, and former high-tech executive involved in establishing Intel development centers in Israel, Germany, and Austria. Haj called for Arab citizens to condemn atrocities and described the “duality” of Arab citizens’ responses when an Israeli soldier or a Palestinian is killed. These accounts are examples of particular individuals’ actions and views, not a collective position.[14]

The sources describe both formal citizenship and contested questions about equality and identity. Arab citizens have the same civil and political rights as Jewish citizens on paper, except that they generally are not subject to compulsory military service. My Jewish Learning also reports allegations of discriminatory practices and an Israeli government denial of a specific land-use discrimination charge.[10] The allegation and response should not be conflated with an uncontested conclusion.

Language policy is another subject of debate. My Jewish Learning says the 2018 nation-state law changed Arabic from an official language to one with “special” status, while an older Jewish Virtual Library overview describes Arabic as Israel’s second official language.[10][2] These formulations should be read in their respective legal and temporal contexts.

Group membership is debated, especially in the case of the Druze. The INSS memorandum explains that collective terms such as “Arab public,” “Arab minority,” and “Arab citizens” can be controversial because they encompass Muslims, Christians, and Druze. It outlines one position stressing Druze Arab nationality and shared minority status and another emphasizing the distinct development of Druze political identity.[1] A Jewish Virtual Library overview describes the Druze as a separate cultural, social, and religious community while discussing them alongside other primarily Arabic-speaking groups.[2] Neither classification determines how an individual Druze citizen identifies.

Terminology is likewise a matter of public and personal debate. Sources use “Arab citizens of Israel,” “Arab Israelis,” and “Palestinian citizens of Israel,” and report that individuals may prefer different formulations.[13][10] Survey categories, political labels, religious affiliations, and legal citizenship describe different dimensions of a varied population.