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80-771: The Circassians arrived in the Middle East after they were pushed out of their homeland in the North Caucasus as the result of the Circassian genocide . The Circassians, who fought during the long period wherein the Russians captured the northern Caucasus, were massacred and expelled by Tsarist Russia from the North-Western Caucasus mountains. The Ottoman Empire absorbed them in their territory, and settled them in sparsely populated areas, including

160-551: A Palestinian component ("Israeli", "Arab", "Arab in Israel", "Israeli Arab"), and 15% chose Palestinian identities without an Israeli component ("Palestinian", "Palestinian Arab"). When these two components are presented as competitors, 69% chose exclusive or primary Palestinian identity, compared with 30% who chose exclusive or primary Israeli Arab identity. 66% of the Arab population agreed that "the identity of 'Palestinian Arab in Israel'

240-417: A Palestinian state would be able to move to Israel. All citizens of Israel, whether Jews or Arabs, would be required to pledge an oath of allegiance to retain citizenship. Those who refuse could remain in Israel as permanent residents. In January 2007 the first non-Druze Arab minister in Israel's history, Raleb Majadele , was appointed minister without portfolio ( Salah Tarif , a Druze , had been appointed

320-455: A base for smuggling activities and were included in the intelligence networks of neighbouring countries. A top secret report on the village written in 1956 indicated that its residents were considered unfriendly, the security services had great difficulty recruiting collaborators among the villagers, and enemy intelligence could comfortably operate among them. Altogether Rihaniyya’s border location made it difficult to supervise. About 20 per cent of

400-610: A broad left-right-center government without consulting the Arab parties, disappointing the Arab community. Tensions between Arabs and the state rose in October 2000 when 12 Arab citizens and one man from Gaza were killed while protesting the government's response to the Second Intifada . In response to this incident, the government established the Or Commission . The events of October 2000 caused many Arabs to question

480-649: A center for Circassian heritage. North Caucasus The North Caucasus , or Ciscaucasia , is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia . It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia . The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and Black Sea to the west, the Caspian Sea to the east, and the Caucasus Mountains to

560-601: A closed military zone, followed by the use of Ottoman legislation on abandoned land to take control of the land. Travel permits, curfews, administrative detentions , and expulsions were part of life until 1966. Arabs who held Israeli citizenship were entitled to vote for the Israeli Knesset . Arab Knesset members have served in office since the First Knesset . The first Arab Knesset members were Amin-Salim Jarjora and Seif el-Din el-Zoubi who were members of

640-543: A main one is that they cannot continue to ignore the Palestinian citizens of Israel. Any solution should include full equality for all citizens as well as the respect and recognition of our rights as a national minority." Some media using the term "Palestinian citizens of Israel" or "Palestinians in Israel" have treated the terms as interchangeable with "Arab citizens of Israel" or "Israeli Arabs", and have not discussed whether Druze and Circassians are exceptions. such as

720-456: A majority of Israeli Arabs condemned the 7 October massacre , but also opposed the mass bombardment of Gaza. Many Israeli Arabs expressed a general resentment over the war, as other Palestinians regarded them as supporters of Israel, whereas Israeli Jews saw them as potential Hamas supporters. In 2006, the official number of Arab residents in Israel – including East Jerusalem and Golan Heights permanent residents many of whom are not citizens –

800-465: A member of the Palestinian people, a son of this Palestinian homeland. And whether we like it or not, the State of Israel, with its identity, was established inside the Palestinian homeland," Sami Abu Shehadeh of Balad is "an outspoken advocate of Palestinian identity". He says, referring to the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis , "... If the past weeks provided lessons for the international community, then

880-589: A minister without portfolio in 2001). The appointment was criticized by the left, which felt it was an attempt to cover up the Labor Party's decision to sit with Yisrael Beiteinu in the government, and by the right, who saw it as a threat to Israel's status as a Jewish state . In 2021, Mansour Abbas , the leader of the United Arab List , made history by becoming the first Israeli Arab political leader to join an Israeli governing coalition . During

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960-782: A nonviolent annexation in January 1921. It was reformed into the Mountainous ASSR , which was later dissolved in October 1924, replaced by a series of autonomous Okrugs and Oblasts. The outer border of the Soviet Union's North Caucasus Krai was the same as that of present-day North Caucasus Economic Region (Raion) which includes an oblast ( Rostov Oblast ), two krais ( Krasnodar Krai and Stavropol Krai ), and seven republics. The former North Caucasus Military District (Okrug) also included Astrakhan Oblast , Volgograd Oblast , and

1040-580: A platform promising to improve personal security and oversees law enforcement. Prominent organized crime families among Israeli Arabs include Al-Hariri, Bakri, Jarushis, and the Druze Abu Latifs. Since the outbreak of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war , Israel has carried out mass arrests and detentions of Palestinian workers and Arab citizens of Israel. On 5 November 2023, CNN reported that "dozens" of Palestinian residents and Arab Israelis were arrested in Israel for expressions of solidarity with

1120-501: A political or national identification, obscuring their Palestinian identity and connection to Palestine . The term Israeli Arabs in particular is viewed as a construct of the Israeli authorities. It is nonetheless used by a significant minority of the Arab population, "reflecting its dominance in Israeli social discourse." Between 1920 and 1948, in what was then Mandatory Palestine , all citizens were known as Palestinians, and

1200-734: A protest against land expropriations and house demolitions. The date of the protest, 30 March, has since been commemorated annually as Land Day . The 1980s saw the birth of the Islamic Movement . As part of a larger trend in the Arab World , the Islamic Movement emphasized moving Islam into the political realm. The Islamic movement built schools, provided other essential social services, constructed mosques, and encouraged prayer and conservative Islamic dress. The Islamic Movement began to affect electoral politics particularly at

1280-596: A reflection of differences in perception of the purpose and outcomes of the war. In the aftermath of the 1947–49 war, the territory previously administered by the British Empire as Mandatory Palestine was de facto divided into three parts: the State of Israel, the Jordanian -held West Bank, and the Egyptian -held Gaza Strip. Of the estimated 950,000 Arabs that lived in the territory that became Israel before

1360-668: A right-wing political party Yisrael Beiteinu , to join his coalition government. The party leader, Avigdor Lieberman , advocated an ethnicity based territory exchange, the Lieberman Plan , by transferring heavily populated Arab areas (mainly the Triangle ), to Palestinian Authority control and annexing major Jewish Israeli settlement blocs in the West Bank close to the green line as part of a peace proposal. Arabs who would prefer to remain in Israel instead of becoming citizens of

1440-411: A rigorous regime of military rule that dominated what remained of the Arab population in territory ruled by Israel, enabling the state to expropriate most Arab-owned land, severely limit its access to investment capital and employment opportunity, and eliminate virtually all opportunities to use citizenship as a vehicle for gaining political influence'. A variety of Israeli legislative measures facilitated

1520-845: A wide variety of self-identification: as Israeli or "in Israel"; as Arabs, Palestinians, or Israelis; and as Muslims , Christians or Druze . The choice of terms to refer to Arab citizens of Israel is a highly politicized issue, and there is a broad range of labels that members of this community use to self-identity. Generally speaking, supporters of Israel tend to use Israeli Arab or Arab Israeli to refer to this population without mentioning Palestine, while critics of Israel (or supporters of Palestinians) tend to use Palestinian or Palestinian Arab without referencing Israel. According to The New York Times , most preferred to identify themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel rather than as Israeli Arabs, as of 2012. The New York Times uses both 'Palestinian Israelis' and 'Israeli Arabs' to refer to

1600-437: Is "an inclusive term used by Israel that describes a number of different and primarily Arabic-speaking groups, including Muslim Arabs", Christian Arabs, Druze and Circassians. They further stated that "considering the number of those defined as Muslim Arabs and Christian Arabs together, the population of Palestinian citizens of Israel amounted to around 1.8 million" in 2019. There are at least two terms which specifically exclude

1680-454: Is appropriate to most Arabs in Israel." According to a 2020 survey by Camil Fuchs of Tel-Aviv University , 51% of Arabs identify as Arab-Israeli, 7% identify as Palestinian, 23% identify as Israeli, 15% identify as Arab, and 4% identify as "other." This significantly differs from their 2019 survey, in which 49% identified as Arab-Israeli, 18% as Palestinian, 27% as Arab, and 5% as Israeli. Common practice in contemporary academic literature

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1760-846: Is bounded by the Sea of Azov on the west, and the Caspian Sea on the east. According to the Concise Atlas of the World, Second Edition (2008), the Ciscaucasus region lies on the European side of the "commonly-accepted division" that separates Europe from Asia. Russia completed the conquest of the North Caucasus by 1864. Between the 1850s and World War I, about a million North Caucasian Muslims, including Circassians , Chechens , Ingush, Ossetians, and others, became refugees in

1840-652: Is mostly Levantine Arabic , including Lebanese Arabic in northern Israel, Palestinian Arabic in central Israel, and Bedouin Arabic across the Negev . Because the modern Arabic dialects of Israel's Arabs have absorbed many Hebrew loanwords and phrases, it is sometimes called the Israeli Arabic dialect . By religious affiliation, the majority of Arab Israelis are Muslims, but there are significant Christian and Druze minorities, among others. Arab citizens of Israel have

1920-494: Is to identify this community as Palestinian as it is how the majority self-identify (See Self-Identification for more). Terms preferred by most Arab citizens to identify themselves include Palestinians , Palestinians in Israel , Israeli Palestinians , the Palestinians of 1948 , Palestinian Arabs , Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel or Palestinian citizens of Israel . There are, however, individuals from among

2000-659: The 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Rihania had a population of 211; all Muslims, increasing slightly in the 1931 census to 222, still all Muslims, in a total of 53 houses. In the 1945 census by the Mandate, the population was 290 people (all Muslims) and the land area was 6,137 dunums . 271 dunums of land were irrigated or used for orchards; 4,725 dunums were allocated to cereal farming, while 89 dunams were built up (urban) land. In 1948, during Operation Hiram (29–31 October),

2080-408: The 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis widespread protests and riots intensified across Israel, particularly in cities with large Arab populations. In Lod, rocks were thrown at Jewish apartments and some Jewish residents were evacuated from their homes by the police. Synagogues and a Muslim cemetery were vandalized. Communal violence including "riots, stabbings, arson, attempted home invasions and shootings"

2160-775: The Amnesty International 2022 report "Israel's Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity", the organization excludes the Israeli Arab Druze and non-Arab Circassians from the term Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel: The Washington Post included the Druze among the Palestinians. The Council of Foreign Relations stated:"The majority of Arab citizens are Sunni Muslims, though there are many Christians and also Druze, who more often embrace Israeli identity." The question of Palestinian identity extends to representation in

2240-571: The Caucasus Emirate and, from June 2015, the Islamic State . The insurgency became relatively dormant in its later years. During its peak, the violence was mostly concentrated in the North Caucasus republics of Chechnya , Dagestan , Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria . Occasional incidents happened in surrounding regions, such as North Ossetia–Alania , Karachay-Cherkessia , Stavropol Krai , and Volgograd Oblast . While

2320-712: The Democratic List of Nazareth party and Tawfik Toubi , member of the Maki party. In 1965 a radical independent Arab group called al-Ard forming the Arab Socialist List tried to run for Knesset elections. The list was banned by the Israeli Central Elections Committee . In 1966, martial law was lifted completely, and the government set about dismantling most of the discriminatory laws, while Arab citizens were granted

2400-694: The East Jerusalem Arab population and the Druze and other Arabs in the Golan Heights : the Arabs inside the Green Line , and the Arabs within (Arabic: عرب الداخل , romanized:  ‘Arab al-Dākhil ). These terms clarify that While known officially by the Israeli government only as " Israeli Arabs " or "Arab Israelis", the development of Palestinian nationalism and identity in

2480-568: The East Jerusalem Arab population or the Druze in the Golan Heights , as these territories were occupied by Israel in 1967: According to The New York Times , as of 2012, most Israeli Arabs preferred to identify themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel rather than as Israeli Arabs. The Council on Foreign Relations also states that most members of the Israeli Arab community prefer this term. The Washington Post asserted in 2021 that "surveys showed" that Israeli Arabs preferred

Rehaniya - Misplaced Pages Continue

2560-758: The Galilee in Beirut Vilayet ( Ottoman Syria ). The area where they settled was called Burak Alma ("Pools of Alma "). The village of Rehaniya was established in 1873, but only in 1878 did Circassian families arrive from the Abzakh tribe in the northern Caucasus, a region where today is located the Adygea and Karachay–Cherkessia in the Russian Federation . The village itself was established in 1880 by 66 families, most of whom were Abzakhs . In

2640-641: The Manych River . Owing to its mild climate compared to much of Russia, the region has been described as Russia's " sunbelt ". Ancient cultures of the Northern Caucasus are known as Klin-Yar community, with one of the most notable cultures being the ancient Koban culture . Ciscaucasus was historically covered by the Pontic–Caspian steppe , mostly on fertile calcareous chernozyom soils, which has been almost completely tilled and grazed. It

2720-620: The New York Times . Surveys of Arab-Israeli self-identification are diverse, and have often presented differing if not contradictory results. In 2017 the Konrad Adenauer Foundation 's Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University conducted a telephone poll, in which the results were: The focus groups associated with

2800-606: The Ottoman Empire . The Ottoman government settled North Caucasian refugees in territories of modern-day Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, Georgia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Kosovo, Greece, Cyprus, and North Macedonia, creating a large North Caucasian diaspora. Much of the Northern Caucasus seceded from Russia in March 1917 as the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus , taking advantage of

2880-472: The Republic of Kalmykia . Its administrative center was Rostov-on-Don until 10 January 1934, Pyatigorsk until January 1936, then Ordzhonikidze (today Vladikavkaz) and, from 15 December 1936, Voroshilovsk (today Stavropol). The North Caucasus region experienced widespread unrest and insurgency after the fall of the Soviet Union, including a low-level armed conflict between Russia and militants associated with

2960-485: The 1948 Nakba , the Palestinians that have remained within the 1949 Armistice borders have been colloquially known as "48 Arabs" (Arabic: عرب ٤٨ , romanized:  ʿArab Thamāniya wa-ʾArbaʿīn ). With the end of military administrative rule in 1966 and following the 1967 war, national consciousness and its expression among Israel's Arab citizens spread. A majority then self-identified as Palestinian, preferring this descriptor to Israeli Arab in numerous surveys over

3040-602: The 20th and 21st centuries has been met by a marked evolution in self-identification, reflecting a rising identification with Palestinian identity alongside Arab and Israeli signifiers. Many Palestinian citizens of Israel have family ties to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as to Palestinian refugees in Jordan , Syria and Lebanon . Between 1948 and 1967, very few Arab citizens of Israel identified openly as "Palestinian", and an "Israeli-Arab" identity,

3120-563: The 70 male residents of Rihaniyya were suspected of giving shelter to infiltrators and smuggling" Rehaniya is one of two predominantly- Circassian villages in Israel. The other one is Kfar Kama . The Circassians are Muslims who, unlike the main Israeli Arab Muslim minority, are conscripted to perform military service in the Israeli Defense Forces . Rehaniya reached local council status in 1950. The village

3200-502: The Arab citizenry who reject the term Palestinian altogether. A minority of Israel's Arab citizens include "Israeli" in some way in their self-identifying label; the majority identify as Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship . The Israeli establishment prefers Israeli Arabs or Arabs in Israel , and also uses the terms the minorities , the Arab sector , Arabs of Israel and Arab citizens of Israel . These labels have been criticized for denying this population

3280-559: The Golan Heights , occupied and administered by Israel in 1967, are considered permanent residents under Israels Golan Heights Law of 1981. As of mid 2022, 4,303 Druze citizens of Syria have been granted Israeli citizenship, or, 20% of the total Druze residents in the Golan Heights. Most Jewish Israelis refer to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War as the War of Independence, while most Arab citizens refer to it as al-Nakba (the catastrophe),

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3360-463: The Israeli Knesset . Journalist Ruth Margalit says of Mansour Abbas of the United Arab List , a member of the governing coalition , "The traditional term for this group, Arab Israelis, is increasingly controversial, but it's the one that Abbas prefers." Abbas gave an interview to Israeli media in November 2021 and said "My rights don't just come from my citizenship. My rights also come from being

3440-520: The Israeli government had invested time and effort to protect Jewish citizens from Hezbollah attacks, but had neglected Arab citizens. They pointed to a dearth of bomb shelters in Arab towns and villages and a lack of basic emergency information in Arabic. Many Israeli Jews viewed the Arab opposition to government policy and sympathy with the Lebanese as a sign of disloyalty. In October 2006, tensions rose when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert invited

3520-632: The West Bank. As permanent residents, they are eligible to vote in Jerusalem 's municipal elections, although only a small percentage takes advantage of this right. The Golan Heights was not part of Mandatory Palestine or the Ottoman political units which preceded it, but rather was part of Syria, and the UN still recognizes it as such, and calls it the Syrian Golan. The remaining Druze population of

3600-554: The aftermath of the Second Intifada . Arabs who left their homes during the period of armed conflict, but remained in what had become Israeli territory, were considered to be " present absentees ". In some cases, they were refused permission to return to their homes, which were expropriated and turned over to state ownership, as was the property of other Palestinian refugees . Some 274,000, or 1 of every 4 Arab citizens of Israel are "present absentees" or internally displaced Palestinians . Notable cases of "present absentees" include

3680-515: The authorities decided to relent. The villagers of Rihaniya faced expulsion yet again in 1955, when "after villagers were suspected of assisting Lebanese gangs that had carried out an attack on a bus in Meron and had placed mines in Alma, Israel . A considerable number of Bedouin tents had also been established around Rihaniyya and according to Ha’aretz , it was ‘beyond any doubt’ that they were used as

3760-501: The civilian population of Gaza, sharing Quran verses, or expressing "any support for the Palestinian people". Haaretz described the widespread targeting of Arab Israelis by Israeli security forces. Referring to "hundreds" of interrogations, El País reported on 11 November that Israel increasingly treats its Arab minority as a "potential fifth column ". At the same time, the conflict saw an increased self-identification with Israel among Arab citizens. According to different polls,

3840-643: The community and pressuring the Israeli government. This was followed in 1975 by the formation of the Committee for the Defense of the Land, which sought to prevent continuing land expropriations. That same year, a political breakthrough took place with the election of Arab poet Tawfiq Ziad , a Maki member, as mayor of Nazareth, accompanied by a strong communist presence in the town council. In 1976, six Arab citizens of Israel were killed by Israeli security forces at

3920-530: The first was the Galilee regional council, who saw in the increase in the Muslim population of Kfar Kama ’uncalled for and unwanted new residents in the region’ who protested the increase in the population of Muslims in the lower Galilee, the second were the villagers of Kfar Kama themselves, angered by what they saw as a "slight on their honour and about 40 prepared to emigrate to Turkey." Faced with this opposition,

4000-479: The focus group findings of strong Palestinian national identity, not conflicting with Israeli civic identity, match those seen in the public sphere. According to a 2019 survey by University of Haifa professor Sammy Smooha , conducted in Arabic among 718 Arab adults, 47% of the Arab population chose Palestinian identities with an Israeli component ("Israeli Palestinian", "Palestinian in Israel", "Palestinian Arab in Israel"), 36% prefers Israeli Arab identities without

4080-400: The formation of a governing coalition. Increased participation of Arab citizens was also seen at the civil society level. However, tension continued to exist with many Arabs calling for Israel to become a " state of all its citizens ", thereby challenging the state's Jewish identity. In the 1999 elections for prime minister, 94% of the Arab electorate voted for Ehud Barak . However, Barak formed

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4160-670: The instability caused by the February Revolution and becoming a minor participant in the Russian Civil War . Mountainous Republic troops engaged in fierce clashes against the invading White General Anton Denikin 's Volunteer Army , before the latter's defeat at the hands of the Red Army . The region was informally occupied by the Soviet Union shortly afterwards, and the republic was forced into accepting

4240-484: The insurgency was officially declared over on 19 December 2017 when FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov announced the final elimination of the insurgent underground in the North Caucasus, counter-terrorism operations in the North Caucasus have not ended. In June 2022, the US State Department advised citizens not to travel to the North Caucasus, including Chechnya and Mount Elbrus , due to terrorism, kidnapping and risk of civil unrest. Other paramilitaries active in

4320-458: The local level. Many Arab citizens supported the First Intifada and assisted Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, providing them with money, food, and clothes. A number of strikes were also held by Arab citizens in solidarity with Palestinians in the occupied territories. The years leading up to the Oslo Accords were a time of optimism for Arab citizens. During the administration of Yitzhak Rabin , Arab parties played an important role in

4400-460: The most important "component in their personal identity" was to them; 33 percent answered "Israeli citizenship", 32 percent "Arab identity", 23 percent "religious affiliation", and 8 percent "Palestinian identity". University of Haifa professor Sammy Smooha commented in 2019, "The largest now and the most growing identity is a hybrid identity, which is 'Palestinian in Israel' or a similar combination. I think that’s what’s going to take over." In

4480-435: The nature of their Israeli citizenship. To a large extent, they boycotted the 2001 Israeli Elections as a means of protest. This boycott helped Ariel Sharon defeat Ehud Barak; as aforementioned, in the 1999 elections, 94 percent of Israel's Arab minority had voted for Ehud Barak. IDF enlistment by Bedouin citizens of Israel dropped significantly. During the 2006 Lebanon War , Arab advocacy organizations complained that

4560-417: The north: Kalmykia . Geographically, the term North Caucasus also refers to the northern slope and western extremity of the Greater Caucasus mountain range, as well as a part of its southern slope to the West. The Pontic–Caspian steppe area is often also encompassed under the notion of a Ciscaucasus region, thus the northern boundary of the Forecaucasus steppe or Nogai steppe is generally considered to be

4640-430: The poll provided a different outcome, in which "there was consensus that Palestinian identity occupies a central place in their consciousness". reflecting "the strength of Palestinian-Arab identity", and that they do not see a contradiction between that and Israeli civic identity. The focus group revealed strong opposition to the term "Israeli-Arab" and to the concept of Israel's "Independence Day". The study concluded that

4720-550: The poorest in the country, and generally attend schools that are separated to some degree from those attended by Jewish Israelis . Arab political parties traditionally did not join governing coalitions until 2021, when the United Arab List became the first to do so. The Druze and the Bedouin in the Negev and the Galilee have historically expressed the strongest non-Jewish affinity to Israel and are more likely to identify as Israelis than other Arab citizens. Speakers of both Arabic and Hebrew , their traditional vernacular

4800-518: The preferred phrase of the Israeli establishment and public, was predominant. Public expressions of Palestinian identity, such as displays of the Palestinian flag or the singing and reciting of nationalist songs or poetry were illegal. With the end of military administrative rule in 1966 and following the 1967 war, national consciousness and its expression among Israel's Arab citizens spread. A majority then self-identified as Palestinian, preferring this descriptor to Israeli Arab in numerous surveys over

4880-476: The region have included the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus , an anti-Georgian organization and a participant in the 1992–1993 Abkhaz conflict that based its flag and political agenda directly on those of the Mountainous Republic. The North Caucasus, especially in its mountainous territories, has the highest life expectancy in Russia. The region is known for a large number of centenarians . Russian political subdivisions associated with

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4960-400: The region include: Arab citizens of Israel The Arab citizens of Israel form Israel’s largest ethnic minority. They are mostly former Palestinian citizens who have continued to live in what became Israel, and their descendants. The majority of Arabs in Israel now prefer to be identified as Palestinian citizens of Israel . Following the establishment of Israel in

5040-523: The residents of Saffuriyya and the Galilee villages of Kafr Bir'im and Iqrit . Between Israel's declaration of independence on 14 May 1948 and the Israeli Nationality Law of 14 July 1952, there technically were no Israeli citizens. While most Arabs remaining in Israel were granted citizenship, they were subject to martial law in the early years of the state. Zionism had given little serious thought as to how to integrate Arabs, and according to Ian Lustick subsequent policies were 'implemented by

5120-402: The same population. The relationship of Arab citizens to the State of Israel is often fraught with tension and can be regarded in the context of relations between minority populations and state authorities elsewhere in the world. Arab citizens consider themselves to be an indigenous people . The tension between their Palestinian Arab national identity and their identity as citizens of Israel

5200-450: The same rights as Jewish citizens under law. After the 1967 Six-Day War , Arab citizens were able to contact Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the first time since the establishment of the state. This along with the lifting of military rule, led to increased political activism among Arab citizens. In 1974, a committee of Arab mayors and municipal councilmen was established which played an important role in representing

5280-409: The south. The region shares land borders with the countries of Georgia and Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus . Located in the south of the region, Mount Elbrus is the tallest peak in Europe. Krasnodar is the most populous among the urban centres in the region. The North Caucasus came under Russian control in the 19th century, following the Caucasian War between the Russian Empire and

5360-553: The term "Palestinian citizen of Israel" and that "for people who often feel caught between two worlds, however, the contours of what it means to be a Palestinian citizen of Israel remain a work in progress." However, these findings conflict with a 2017 Tel Aviv University poll which showed most Israelis self-identify as either Arab-Israeli or simply Israeli. Similar terms that Israeli Arabs, media and other organizations may use are Palestinian Arabs in Israel and Israeli Palestinian Arabs . Amnesty reports that "Arab citizens of Israel"

5440-461: The transfer of land abandoned by Arabs to state ownership. These included the Absentee Property Law of 1950 which allowed the state to expropriate the property of Palestinians who fled or were expelled to other countries, and the Land Acquisition Law of 1953 which authorized the Ministry of Finance to transfer expropriated land to the state. Other common legal expedients included the use of emergency regulations to declare land belonging to Arab citizens

5520-467: The two primary communities were referred to by the British authorities as "Arabs" and " Jews ". Between 1948 and 1967 , very few citizens of Israel identified openly as "Palestinian". An "Israeli-Arab" identity, the preferred phrase of the Israeli establishment and public, was predominant. Public expressions of Palestinian identity, such as displays of the Palestinian flag or the singing and reciting of nationalist songs or poetry were illegal. Ever since

5600-551: The two territories' populace respectively. Acquisition of Israeli citizenship there is scarce as only 5% of Palestinians in East Jerusalem were Israeli citizens in 2022. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , the Israeli Arab population stood at 2.1 million people in 2023, accounting for 21% of Israel's total population. The majority of these Arab citizens identify themselves as Arab or Palestinian by nationality and as Israeli by citizenship. They mostly live in Arab-majority towns and cities , some of which are among

5680-499: The various regional powers. The territory is the southernmost portion of Russia and is divided between a number of republics and krais . It is administered as part of the North Caucasian and Southern Federal Districts and consists of Krasnodar Krai , Stavropol Krai , and the constituent republics, approximately from west to east: the Republic of Adygea , Karachay-Cherkessia , Kabardino-Balkaria , North Ossetia–Alania , Ingushetia , Chechnya , and Republic of Dagestan and to

5760-508: The village's location on the border of Lebanon, it maintained active ties with villages across the border. In 1953, due to increased tensions between the community and the state, authorities engaged in a security campaign, surrounding the village and conducting house searches. The contraband found convinced the authorities that the villagers had to be evicted. The decision was made to evict the villagers to Kfar Kama , another Circassian village. This caused great consternation among two communities -

5840-597: The villagers surrendered to the advancing Israeli army and were allowed to remain in the village. In November 1949, a plan to evict the villagers, as well as those from five other villages along the border with Lebanon , was presented to the Israeli cabinet. The proposals were strongly supported by the IDF , but the plan was vetoed by the Foreign Ministry who were worried about the possible international response. The village remained under Martial Law until 1966. Due to

5920-402: The wake of the 1948 Palestine war , it conferred its citizenship to the Arabs who remained or were not expelled from its territory, but they were put under military law until 1966. After the 1967 Six-Day War , which resulted in an ongoing occupation of several territories, Israel annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights in the early 1980s, thereby granting citizenship eligibility to

6000-464: The war, over 80% fled or were expelled. The other 20%, some 156,000, remained. Some of them are supporting Israel from the beginning. Arab citizens of Israel today are largely composed of the people who remained and their descendants. Others include some from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank who procured Israeli citizenship under family-unification provisions made significantly more stringent in

6080-630: The years. Arabs in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights (Syrian Golan) are special cases regarding citizenship and identity. Arabs living in East Jerusalem , occupied and administered by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967 hold Israeli ID cards, but most are non-citizen permanent residents since few accepted Israel's offer of citizenship after the war's end, refusing to recognize its sovereignty, and most maintain close ties with

6160-492: The years. In a 2017 telephone poll, 40% of Arab citizens of Israel identified as "Arab in Israel / Arab citizen of Israel", 15% identified as "Palestinian", 8.9% as "Palestinian in Israel / Palestinian citizen of Israel", and 8.7% as "Arab"; the focus groups associated with the poll provided a different outcome, in which "there was consensus that Palestinian identity occupies a central place in their consciousness". A November 2023 poll asked respondents from this demographic what

6240-464: Was built in the traditional Circassian style, which has its roots in the Caucasus, and is called "walled village": the houses are built next to one another and form a protective wall around the city, whose remnants remain until 2008. In the village there is a mosque in the style of Circassian mosques in the Caucasus, and substantially different from Arab mosques. Also, the village contains a museum and

6320-662: Was famously described by an Arab public figure as: "My state is at war with my nation". Arab/Palestinian citizens of Israel may refer to themselves by a wide range of terms. Each of these names, while referring to the same group of people, connotes a different balance in what is often a multilayered identity assigning varying levels of priority or emphasis to the various dimensions which may be historic-geographic (" Palestine (region) "), "national" or ethnoreligious (Palestinian, Arab, Israeli, Druze, Circassian), linguistic (Arabic-speaking), civic (feeling "Israeli" or not), etc.: Two appellations, among others listed above, are not applied to

6400-602: Was reported from Beersheba, Rahat, Ramla, Lod, Nasiriyah, Tiberias, Jerusalem, Haifa and Acre. The Arab community in Israel has seen a significant increase in violence and organized crime , including a rise in gang-related murders in recent years. A report by the Abraham Initiative highlighted that 244 Arab community members were killed in Israel in 2023, more than double the previous year's count. The report attributed this surge in homicides directly to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir , who campaigned on

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