most notably the health status of arabisraelis is poorer than for the rest of the population as exemplified by their lower average life expectancy figure panels a and b this is in part due to nonmedical issues on average arabisraeli men smoke far more than the rest of the population and the incidence of obesity is relatively high among arabisraeli women see below also within the arab population the bedouin community raises particular concerns for instance infant mortality remains very high chernichovsky these gaps in health outcomes link to wider socioeconomic issues