Arabs in Israel: Between Integration and Alienation

The disturbances of October 2000 and the conclusions of the Or Commission, the official commission of inquiry established in the wake of those events, prompted a new understanding among decision makers in Israel on the strategic importance of the status of the Arab minority in Israel. Israel has publicly acknowledged its policy of discrimination against Arabs, in effect since the establishment of the state, and admitted that full equality according to the law for this sector, as individuals and as a group, is in Israel’s national interest and ensures social stability and economic prosperity.