Survey: 45 percent of Arab families live below poverty line

Forty-five percent of Arab families in Israel are defined as poor, compared to 15 percent of families in the Jewish sector, according to statistics published on Monday by Sikkuy, a Jewish Arab association for the advancement of civic equality in Israel.

In its report, the association claimed that "the government has not yet taken concrete and substantial steps toward correcting the continuing historical injustice caused to the Arab citizens."

The Sikkuy report is largely based on information from the Central Bureau of Statistics, gathered between 2000 and 2001.

The report contrasts with the recommendations for the improvement of the Israeli Arab's social conditions, as put forward by the Or Committee, which probed the clashes between security forces and rioters at the end of September 2000 that left 13 Israeli Arabs dead.

According to the association, welfare allowances in Israel do not considerably alleviate the economic conditions of Israeli Arabs. It also claims that income supplements lift around 50 percent of poor Jews above the poverty line, whereas only one fifth of poor Arabs manage to cross the line.

'Arab sector education 20 years behind'
Sikkuy strongly criticized the distribution of resources in the education system, claiming that the level of education the Arab sector benefited from in 2002 was equivalent to that in the Jewish sector of 20 years ago.

It furthermore stated that although the rate of those with college or university education among Jews was double than that among Arabs, the gap was gradually closing.

The Arab sector was also discriminated on the level of the healthcare services it receives, the report claimed. While the infant death rate among Jews stood at 3.5 for every 1000 births in 2003, that of the Arab sector was at 8.4.

Also, while in Arab towns there was one specialized clinic for every 29,500 citizens, the Jewish towns had one clinic for every 15,500 citizens.