In the video: State Comptroller's report: About a third of the Arab youths live in inaction / State Comptroller
The outbreak of the war forced the government to cut budgets widely, in favor of allocating a budget for security purposes and the emergency situation we found ourselves in, these are necessary and required moves.
Although anyone who has read deeply in the articles of the cut understands that on the social front the war is daily, and that crime does not stop in light of an existential threat from the outside.
We are facing an existential struggle.
However, as part of the budget proposal, they want to cut the meat of the plan to fight crime in Arab society, in the fight against the phenomenon of idle young people, in transitional year programs and informal education of organizations and youth movements in Arab society.
Idle young people are those who do not study and are left without employment and livelihood, a situation that may undoubtedly lead them to deviate from the normative life path.
The State Comptroller's report from last May criticizes the increase in the rate of inactivity among young people in the Arab society paralleling the increase in crime among them - the level of crime among this population has consistently increased by approximately 50% in the years 2015-2021.
In numbers, 30% of the young residents of Israel are members of the Arab society , which are actually about 280 thousand young people. This is not a number that can be ignored. Meanwhile, the rate of idleness among young Arabs stands at 57 thousand who do not study and are left without employment and livelihood.
An Arab woman in Wadi Nisnas in Haifa, November 2023. 30% of young Israeli residents are members of Arab society/Shlomi Gabai
An opportunity to deepen institutionalized discrimination
After the cut, it can be assumed that the gaps will only grow and more young people will fall into inaction and as a last resort to violence and crime, which will not be contained within Arab society but will spill over into society as a whole and meet the general public in Israel.
We all understand the magnitude of the event.
It seems that, similar to other events, the Shin Bet's warning is missed here, this time about the planned cuts, so I will mention it. In a document sent to the members of the government, the General Security Service warns that the horizontal cuts planned in the five-year plans for the Arab society "will cause a strategic harm to the national security and resilience of all the citizens of the country ", and recommends not harming the budget.
Under the auspices of the horizontal cut, the government has an opportunity to deepen the institutionalized and long-standing discrimination created by the government itself. This aggressive cut refutes all talk of unity and brotherhood, when the Arab citizens realize that they are at the bottom of the government's food chain, while it is In a population where the need for assistance and quality education from a young age is the most critical, and in the end she does not receive even the minimum required.
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The question arises, how will the gaps be closed if every time they decide to cut, they cut from the weak and from those who need help the most?
In this way, it will be very difficult to develop the fantasy of unity, brotherhood and integration of all the populations in the State of Israel.
For the sake of all of these, we must stop this cut and give new hope to the heads of the Arab authorities, to the various civil societies that work day and night and fight for each and every one.
The extreme fringes will not stop trying to tear us apart and separate us, but we must not let their voice echo beyond the waves of desire for a shared life.
The more we act together, the more the chance of a quality life together will increase.
In the past they talked about coexistence, but the leaders of the conversation forgot how similar we are and how much more we have to accomplish together.
Only by working together and living together can we lift Israeli society out of its deepest crisis.
The war will end, the winds of war will subside, but if we know how to live together, we will guarantee Israel a future in which we will emerge stronger, as a common society.
The author is a co-director of AJIC - The Negev Institute
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