From: perlman@qso.Colorado.EDU (Eric S. Perlman)
Subject: Re: american opinion
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: talk,world
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 22:00:09 GMT

In article <bill.725741652@castor> bill@cognet.ucla.edu (William M. Eldridge) writes:
>backon@vms.huji.ac.il writes:
>>>
>>>>By the way, the Arab representation in the Knesset is (percentage
>>>>wise) far more reflective of the demographics of the country than,
>>>>say, the black representation in the American Congress. In fact, the
>>>>Arab vote represents a major voice during all Israeli elections.
>>>
>>> Get real.  Blacks have major representation in the American Congress,
>
>>Let's see. Blacks are about 12% of the American population so they *should*
>>have 12% of members of congress (43 congressmen out of 535). Funny, I thought
>>the Black Caucus in congress was MUCH smaller. In Israel, Arabs make up around
>>17% of the population. Apart from having two parties in the Israeli Knesset,
>>they make up a majority of the HADASH (communist) party, and there are Israeli
>>Arabs who are Knesset members in the Labor Party, MERETZ, and (I believe) one
>>or more in the LIKUD. Just for the record, the day after elections, the
>>newpapers publish the percentage and absolute numbers that each party received
>>and this is broken down by city/village, etc. Don't laugh but there *were* a
>>number of Israeli Arabs  who voted for Kahana (KACH) in 1986 (?) and, more
>>recently, for MOLEDET and TZOMET.
>
>In the rest of my paragraph below, I explain that real representation
>does not just deal with the racial percentages, but whether the needs
>and wishes of people are reflected in the decision-making process and
>in the laws enacted.  There has been 1/9 black percentage on the
>Supreme Court for the last thirty years, there is a large percentage
>of black mayors in the U.S., there is some attempt to make the cabinet
>more reflective of these percentages, and I believe the black percentage
>in Congress has significantly increased in the last thirty years, though
>I don't have figures on that (my last Congressman was black, so maybe
>that slanted my view of representation).
>
>To be precise, there are 435 voting congressmen (the Senate was never
>intended to be a strictly representational body - originally, it wasn't
>even selected by popular vote), though 12% of 435 is still more than 43.
>Exactly what percentage of the Knesset do the Arabs have?  (This of course
>is completely ignoring the still valid question of whether 700,000
>is the number of Arabs who should be participating in the elections).

Currently there are 39 blacks in the US Congress.  The current Knesset
has 8 Palestinians and 2 Druze from my count.  Past Knessets have
had as many as 12 and as few as about 6 Arab members.  Remember, too,
that around half of the Arab population of Israel votes for Zionist
parties, and that some of the Arab representatives in Knesset are in
Labour or Likud.  In addition, from memory the fraction of Arabs who
vote is a bit lower than that of Jews (which is not meant to be an
indictment of any kind against the Arabs of Israel). 

>>> especially when you consider that whites enact legislation intended
>>> to help blacks - a pretty rare occurrence in Israel, when Arab schools
>>> are often shut down and curfews are imposed on their populations.
>
>>Wrong. NOT in Israel (proper) but in the West Bank and Gaza.
>
>Accepted, though I would like to know how Arab education is compared
>to Jewish (this is of course inviting a lot of attack, since public
>education in the U.S. is hardly equal across the color line, but I
>really am asking the question to get honest facts, not to stir things
>up.)

There are a couple of good books on the subject which have come out
in the last few years or so.  I will try to dig up the titles and authors.

From what I remember it's not 100% equal, but strides are being taken in
that direction.  Arabs do study at Israeli colleges, universities and
postgrad institutions in large numbers.
-- 
"How sad to see/A model of decorum and tranquillity/become like any other sport
A battleground for rival ideologies to slug it out with glee." -Tim Rice,"Chess"
     Eric S. Perlman 				 <perlman@qso.colorado.edu> 
  Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, University of Colorado, Boulder
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast,soc.rights.human