Israeli-Arabs

• In 1948, almost all of the 160,000 Palestinian-Arabs who remained within Israel’s borders became citizens. Today, Israeli-Arab citizens have equal civil and human rights as all other Israeli citizens.
• There are 1.3 million Israeli-Arabs now living in Israel, making up almost 20 percent of the population.
• Hebrew and Arabic are Israel’s two official languages.
• There are five official Israeli-Arab political parties.
• Three Israeli-Arabs were elected to the first Knesset. Israeli-Arabs have held as many as 12 of the 120 seats in the Israeli Parliament at one time.
• All Arab municipalities receive government funding for education and infrastructure.
• Many Israeli-Arabs hold high-level positions, such as
  • Salim Jurban, selected a permanent member of Israel’s Supreme Court (2004)
  • Nawaf Massalha, deputy Foreign Minister
  • Ali Yahya, Walid Mansour and Mohammed Masarwa, who held ambassadorships
  • Major General Hussain Fares, commander of Israel’s border police
  • Major General Yosef Mishlav, head of homeland security as Israel’s Home Front commander
• Israel has enacted affirmative action policies to help its minority citizens achieve full social and economic equality.

Read more at http://www.standwithus.org/