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December 8, 2000/Kislev 11, 5761, Vol. 53, No.11
Mainstream Jews to fund Israeli Arabs?
JULIE WIENER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - North America's Jewish federations, long sources of funding for Israel and its Jewish citizens, are now considering devoting money to Israel's Arab sector.
Since Israel's founding, Jews around the world have raised billions of dollars for Israeli Jews.
Only in the past two decades have a handful of left-leaning Jewish groups, like the New Israel Fund and the Abraham Fund, sought to improve the status of the state's Arab citizens and Arab-Jewish relations.
Now, with Israeli leaders describing the discontent among Arab citizens as a potential threat to the country's future, mainstream Jewish groups such as the United Jewish Communities, the federation's umbrella organization, are discussing the possibility of raising funds to improve social and economic conditions for Israeli Arabs.
The discussions are preliminary. But the fact that mainstream Jewish leaders are openly discussing the possibility of investing in Israeli Arabs - particularly at a time when the prospects for peace between Israel and the larger Arab world are dim - is a significant, some say "revolutionary," shift for American Jewish federations.
The discussion comes as the Israeli government is preparing to implement a $1 billion project addressing various educational and infrastructure needs for the Arab sector.
Arabs comprise 18 percent of the Israeli population, but generally are poorer and less educated than their Jewish counterparts.
Many say they feel like second-class citizens. They feel they face various forms of discrimination and that their villages and institutions historically have not received as much government funding as Jewish ones.
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