- Forty-five percent of Arab families in Israel are defined
as poor, compared to 15 percent of families in the Jewish sector, according
to statistics published on Monday by Sikui, an Israeli Arab association
for social equality in Israel.
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- In its report, the association claimed that "the
government has not yet taken concrete and substantial steps toward
correcting
the continuing historical injustice caused to the Arab
citizens."
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- The Sikui report is largely based on information from
the Central Bureau of Statistics, gathered between 2000 and 2001.
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- The report contrasts with the recommendations for the
improvement of the Israeli Arab's social conditions, as put forward by
the Or Committee, which probed the clashes between security forces and
rioters at the end of September 2000 that left 13 Israeli Arabs
dead.
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- According to the association, welfare allowances in
Israel
do not considerably alleviate the economic conditions of Israeli Arabs.
It also claims that income supplements lift around 50 percent of poor Jews
above the poverty line, whereas only one fifth of poor Arabs manage to
cross the line.
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- Level of education in Arab sector lagging 20 years behind
Jewish sector
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- Sikui strongly criticized the distribution of resources
in the education system, claiming that the level of education the Arab
sector benefited from in 2002 was equivalent to that in the Jewish sector
of 20 years ago.
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- It furthermore stated that although the rate of those
with college or university education among Jews was double than that among
Arabs, the gap was gradually closing.
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- The Arab sector was also discriminated on the level of
the healthcare services it receives, the report claimed. While the infant
death rate among Jews stood at 3.5 for every 1000 births in 2003, that
of the Arab sector was at 8.4. Also, while in Arab towns there was one
specialized clinic for every 29,500 citizens, the Jewish towns had one
clinic for every 15,500 citizens.
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