Minorities make up only 6% of state employees

While Arabs and Druze make up nearly 20% of the population in Israel, they constitute only 6.17% of all state employees in the country.

Data presented Tuesday to a special Knesset inquiry committee on the absorption of Arab employees in the civil service also showed a slight increase of 1.12% in the number of civil servants in the sector since 2003.

MK Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al), who heads the committee, said in the meeting that "some statutory authorities refrain from hiring Arabs altogether." Tibi further stated that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would be summoned to appear before the committee and account for the government's policy on the lacking employment of Arabs in the civil service.

Civil Service Commissioner Shmuel Hollander, who attended the meeting, told the committee: "You must bear in mind that the civil service makes up less than 10% of public service. The focus is naturally on this body, but there are another 90% of statutory authorities and corporations, and in some places the situation is indeed not good.

"As far as the civil service is concerned – we have acted on the matter. I'm not saying we did everything that can be done, one can always do more… but we have always believed that this is an important and justified issue."

According to the statistics presented to the committee, in 2007 the Interior Ministry employed the highest number of Arab and Druze workers – 22.7%, while the Ministry for Pensioners Affairs and the Ministry for Strategic Affairs had not even one Arab or Druze employee on their workforce.

Additionally, Arabs and Druze constituted only 0.6% of employees at the Immigration Absorption Ministry, 1.13% of employees at the Prime Minister's Officer and 1.25% at the Foreign Ministry.