More than half of Israel’s Arab population lives below the poverty line, the Mossawa center for Arab rights in Israel announced on Saturday night. According to Mossawa, poverty rates are four times as high in the Arab sector as they are in the Jewish sector.
The number of poor Jewish families went down in 2007 while the number of poor Arab families increased, said Mossawa worker Amin Faras. Approximately 150,000 Arab families with a total of 400,000 children are poor, he said.
Israeli Arabs have long had lower rates of high school graduation, higher education, and participation in the workforce than Israeli Jews, although the number of Arabs receiving high school diplomas has increased over the past several years. Arab women in particular continue to have a low rate of participation in the workforce. Only 30 percent of Arab women work, while 80 percent of Israeli Jewish women are employed.