Blood on the Hi-tech Highway: Cost of Cutting Resolution 550

On the highway to hi-tech, blood and hope flow side by side—and the state turns a blind eye.

I recently met a young Arab woman who had just graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. She spoke enthusiastically about her dream job and her family’s pride in her first shot at higher education. Her eyes sparkled with the belief that hard work will lead to achievements. A few days later, I heard that her cousin had been murdered. Another victim of the crime wave in Arab society.

This gap, between computers and bullets, between innovation and despair, is the exact picture of Israel in 2025.

Arab society is making strides in education: the number of Arab students has doubled in the past decade, and they now make up about 20% of all students in Israel, and in science and engineering, they already make up 35%. But at the same time, the human data is heartbreaking: 244 murdered in 2023, 230 in 2024, and 223 additional victims as of this writing. Behind the numbers are names, families, shattered dreams, and an existential fear that paralyses an entire community.

Decades of institutional neglect have turned Arab society into a scorched earth, where a crime epidemic is born. This is both a moral and national economic failure. Youth who lose their horizons are drawn into the world of crime; young people who invest in their studies encounter glass walls in the job market. The result: a society that learns and excels—but a country that does not know how to absorb it.

When social equality becomes an empty slogan and the state loses billions

The “Takadum” plan (Resolution 550) was born as a promise of profound change in Arab society, to change the equation, to address education, employment, infrastructure, innovation and hi-tech from the root and to transform Arab society into a real growth engine. However, five years after its approval, the promise has faded. Budgets were delayed, initiatives were halted, and the ministers responsible for its implementation failed to prioritize the plan. They did not adequately invest the necessary effort to recruit partners from the business, civil, philanthropic sectors and local authorities to drive the plan. A plan that was supposed to be an engine for national growth, got stuck in government ministries that put together a faltering engine for it.

We were supposed to see numbers and data that would make us all breathe a sigh of relief, believing that new avenues have been paved for our children. Unfortunately, the reality is different. ‘How is it possible that in a country that boasts startups and innovation, outstanding young people find themselves stuck without a job and without a life?’ a young engineer who has been looking for a hi-tech job for a year and a half asked me.

And yet, change is possible. The Forsatech program, run by the Ministry of Labor, offers a model that allows Arab talents to integrate into hi-tech. Not by grace, but by merit. It proves that professional integration is not a social gesture, but a smart economic strategy. Precisely now, when it is proving itself, it is threatened with cancellation by the Minister of Social Equality, a step that symbolizes a fundamental lack of understanding of the economic and social value of the program. This is not only ironic—it is a national danger.

The intention to cut 2.9 billion shekels from Resolution 550 for the years 2025-2026 is not just a budgetary measure, but a destructive decision that harms Israel’s human capital. The meaning is clear: halting development processes, damaging trust, and deepening the rift between the state and its Arab citizens. Crime will continue to claim victims, education will lose its purpose, and Arab society will remain excluded from realizing its enormous potential. Crime cannot be fought only with more police officers. We must invest in education, employment, infrastructure, and welfare. Such a cut is not only a betrayal of Arab society; it is a betrayal of Israel’s future.

A country that does not properly integrate 20% of its citizens incurs losses of billions a year and damages its international standing. A responsible economic policy does not harm the forces that drive its future. The failure to integrate talented young people is not only a social injustice, but a grave economic mistake. Arab society is not asking for mercy, but for opportunity. The struggle to integrate young people in hi-tech and key industries is also a struggle for Israel’s future identity, because those who block budgets for Arabs block oxygen for the Israeli economy.

The Israeli government must choose: gamble on the future and invest in brilliant human capital, or continue to lose opportunities, lives, and a future. The future is still open. If the state chooses to invest in trust and partnership instead of fear and division, we can all travel the same road, not just to hi-tech, but to a more reformed society.

So that the young woman with the sparkling eyes can fulfill her dream, and so that no other relative is a victim, we must wake up. Now.