page_title: Arab citizens of Israel
section_title: Population
hierarchical_section_title: Arab citizens of Israel / Population
caption_attribution_description: English: Haifa - The port, downtown עברית: חיפה - הנמל, העיר התחתית
context_page_description: Arab citizens of Israel, or Arab Israelis, are Israeli citizens who are Arab. Many Arab citizens of Israel self-identify as Palestinian and commonly self-designate themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel or Israeli Palestinians. According to a 2017 survey by University of Haifa professor Sammy Smooha, 16% of the Arab population prefers the term "Israeli Arab", while the largest and fastest growing proportion prefers "Palestinian in Israel", and 17% prefer "Palestinian Arab", rejecting entirely the identity of "Israeli".
  The traditional vernacular of most Arab citizens, irrespective of religion, is Levantine Arabic, including Lebanese Arabic in northern Israel, Palestinian dialect of Arabic in central Israel and Bedouin dialects across the Negev desert; having absorbed many Hebrew loanwords and phrases, the modern dialect of Arab citizens of Israel is defined by some as the Israeli Arabic dialect. Most Arab citizens of Israel are functionally bilingual, their second language being Modern Hebrew. By religious affiliation, most are Muslim, particularly of the Sunni branch of Islam.
context_section_description: In 2006, the official number of Arab residents in Israel was 1,413,500 people, about 20% of Israel's population. This figure includes 209,000 Arabs (14% of the Israeli Arab population) in East Jerusalem, also counted in the Palestinian statistics, although 98% of East Jerusalem Palestinians have either Israeli residency or Israeli citizenship. In 2012, the official number of Arab residents in Israel increased to 1,617,000 people, about 21% of Israel's population. The Arab population in 2019 was estimated at 1,890,000 people, representing 20.95% of the country's population.
  In Israel's Northern District Arab citizens of Israel form a majority of the population (52%) and about 50% of the Arab population lives in 114 different localities throughout Israel. In total there are 122 primarily if not entirely Arab localities in Israel, 89 of them having populations over two thousand. The seven townships as well as the Abu Basma Regional Council that have been constructed by the government for the Bedouin population of the Negev, are the only Arab localities to have been established since 1948, with the aim of relocating the Arab Bedouin citizens (see preceding section on Bedouin).
  46% of the country's Arabs (622,400 people) live in predominantly Arab communities in the north. In 2019 Nazareth was the largest Arab city, with a population of 77,445, roughly 40,000 of whom are Muslim. Shefa-'Amr has a population of approximately 42,137 and the city is mixed with sizable populations of Muslims, Christians, and Druze.
  Jerusalem, a mixed city, has the largest overall Arab population. Jerusalem housed 332,400 Arabs in 2016 (37.7% of the city's residents) and together with the local council of Abu Ghosh, some 19% of the country's entire Arab population.
  14% of Arab citizens live in the Haifa District predominantly in the Wadi Ara region. Here is the largest Muslim city, Umm al-Fahm, with a population of 56,109. Baqa-Jatt is the second largest Arab population center in the district. The city of Haifa has an Arab population of 10%, much of it in the Wadi Nisnas, Abbas and Halissa neighborhoods.
  10% of the country's Arab population resides in the Central District of Israel, primarily the cities of Tayibe, Tira, and Qalansawe as well as the mixed cities of Lod and Ramla which have mainly Jewish populations.
  Of the remaining 11%, 10% live in Bedouin communities in the northwestern Negev. The Bedouin city of Rahat is the only Arab city in the Southern District and it is the third largest Arab city in Israel.
  The remaining 1% of the country's Arab population lives in cities that are almost entirely Jewish, such as Nazareth Illit with an Arab population of 22% and Tel Aviv-Yafo, 4%.
  In February 2008, the government announced that the first new Arab city would be constructed in Israel. According to Haaretz, "[s]ince the establishment of the State of Israel, not a single new Arab settlement has been established, with the exception of permanent housing projects for Bedouins in the Negev". The city, Givat Tantur, was never constructed even after 10 years.
caption: Downtown Haifa, where Arabs, both Christians and Muslims, comprise around 70% of the residents[114]
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