Punishing Israel’s Arabs – and Good Governance

I’m still recuperating, a week after encountering the Times of Israel headline: “Social Equality minister roundly panned for plan to divert Arab economic development funds.” Shocked, of course, by the minister’s intention – but also encouraged by the criticism it aroused.

The importance of advancing the second five-year plan (2021-26) to empower Arab society in Israel is an issue that I have referenced frequently in this blog. There’s no doubt in my mind that this program, designed to close socio-economic gaps between the country’s Jewish majority and its Arab minority, is a social justice imperative that actually works – as demonstrated by rising levels of Arab income, employment and educational achievement in the past few years.

I therefore breathed a sigh of relief when learning a few days after seeing the headline that the Prime Minister decided his office would directly manage the NIS 1.8 billion shekels targeted for diversion. That figure is basically the residue not exhausted this year (for various reasons); most of the program’s allocations will continue to be implemented by relevant government ministries in the coming fiscal year.

The ostensible rationale for the diversion attempt was to move money into efforts to fight a soaring violent crime wave in Arab society. On the face of things, a reasonable explanation; it seems that almost every day a member of that community is murdered — an alarming statistic.

Israel’s civil servants, more familiar than anyone with the situation on the ground, didn’t buy the pretext. Not that they oppose fighting crime; on the contrary. But they smelled a rat and put their foot down.

Eti Kisos, deputy director general in the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry, reflected the position of her civil service counterparts when she wrote to Social Equality Ministry Director General Ami Cohen that adoption of the proposal would lead to the immediate closing of 303 ministry-funded programs in local Arab municipalities. This, in her view, “would harm significant activity that reduced gaps and helped deal with violence and crime.”

Kisos was not alone in sounding the alarm bells. Adv. Moran Schnaider, head of the Justice Ministry’s social affairs unit, confronted head-on the contention that the blocked initiative would reduce crime if adopted. She wrote that the proposal “not only does not offer an effective response to crime in Arab society, but it is liable to exacerbate the situation.”

This, dear readers, is what civil service gatekeepers – from top to bottom – do on a regular basis in carrying out their mandate to protect the public interest. Having served in the public sector for almost 40 years until my recent early retirement, I couldn’t be more proud.

Israelis talk a lot about the importance of sharing the burden among our citizens, as well as of strengthening governance. In this context, there is quite a bit of irony about this year’s latest attempt to harm the Arab empowerment plan – the Social Equality minister already cut NIS 66 million ($18.2 million) from its budget back in March – a program that seeks to deal with both challenges simultaneously.

I say this because the program is known in official circles for its excellence and efficiency. According to a study published in August by the Governance and Social Affairs unit in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Government Resolution 550 – which established the second five-year plan – has the highest number of budgetary tasks (439) and yet still reached an implementation success rate of 92 percent.

That is what’s called good governance. No two ways about it.

This most recent attack on Arab-empowerment efforts in Israel got me thinking about past activities in other countries to fight rising crime in a minority community. While obviously different circumstances, the US’s 1994 crime bill comes to mind. Initiated by then-president Bill Clinton, who later expressed regret for it, the plan caused massive prison overpopulation, and a spike in the incarceration of African-Americans.

Not an outcome we’d want to see with Israel’s Arab community.

To me, it’s clear that the necessary law enforcement action should always be complemented by robust activities to increase minority citizens’ integration and sense of belonging. It behooves us to ensure that they feel like stakeholders in the country’s present and future.

The firm consensus among Israel’s senior civil servants against the budget diversion effort strongly backs this notion.

I’ll conclude by joining the growing voices within and outside the Israeli government calling to move the Authority for the Economic Development of Arab Society, responsible for implementing the five-year plan, to the PMO on a permanent basis. A natural fit, since it was born there in 2007 under the Olmert administration and was revitalized there in 2015 under the Netanyahu government.

The move needs to be made urgently, for the good of all Israel’s citizens.