Talk:Arab citizens of Israel

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Requested move 26 May 2025

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Not moved * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 00:48, 6 July 2025 (UTC)

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Arab citizens of Israel → Israeli ArabsIsraeli Arabs – Clear common name, per Google hits. Also per consistency with Israeli Jews – not Jewish citizens of Israel. The claim that they mostly identify as "Palestinian citizens of Israel" appears to not really be the case. The current title seems to be primarily used by the Israeli government in an attempt to ostracize its Arab minority. The article itself uses the names interchangeably. 🐔 Chicdat  ^{Bawk to me!} 11:08, 26 May 2025 (UTC)

Oppose. Firstly, WP:COMMONNAME is determined by prevalence among WP:RS not Google hits which includes anything. Secondly, there's a whole section of the article on this which makes clear that (a) this is a highly politicised issue (b) "Israeli Arab" is the preferred term used by the Israeli establishment and rejected by the "Arab citizens of Israel" i.e. there's an NPOV issue right there (c) academic sources (i.e. the highest quality RS) follow self-identification preferences and not Israeli Arab. DeCausa (talk) 17:19, 31 May 2025 (UTC)

@DeCausa: It is by no means a decided fact that these people refer to themselves as "Arab citizens of Israel" rather than Israeli Arabs. You want scholarly sources? Very well. According to Google Scholar, Israeli Arabs is four times more common than Arab citizens of Israel, although Arabs in Israel appears to be a close second. 🐔 Chicdat  ^{Bawk to me!} 19:32, 2 June 2025 (UTC)

Google Scholar can be almost as misleading as Google. The point is the WP:CONSENSUS version of this article contradicts your point of view. It already makes statements (sourced) about what academia uses and what lacks neutrality. It's kinda pre-empted any move discussion - which is unusual. I agree that "Arab citizens of Israel" is questionable but I think the replacement is more likely to be "Palestinian citizen of Israel" rather than "Israeli Arab". This is what Human Rights Watch says: Terminology regarding Israel's Arab citizens is highly politicised. Increasingly, individuals are rejecting the term "Israeli Arab", which is used by the Israeli government, in favour of Palestinian Arab".(HRW "Second Class: Discrimination against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel's Schools, p.8) I think you may have strayed into a minefield. DeCausa (talk) 19:56, 2 June 2025 (UTC)

This article details increasingly more recent polls saying that these people identify as Israeli first, Arab second, Palestinian third. Human Rights Watch has been described as anti-Israel, so can hardly be a neutral source on the conflict. My so-called "point of view" is entirely separate from what I advocate for on Wikipedia. For instance, I supported moving Israel–Hamas war to Gaza war. Regardless, the WP:CONSENSUS version of this article is neutral, and follows RSs. I am merely proposing that the article title follows RS as well. 🐔 Chicdat  ^{Bawk to me!} 20:14, 2 June 2025 (UTC)

I don't understand the scare quotes around your point of view, the use of "so-called" or what your views on the Gaza war (which I have no knowledge of/interest in) have got to do with this. You have made perfectly clear what your point of view is on this name change and your point of view contradicts the sourced content of this article. Have you actually read it? I think I have nothing more to add to this - I have made my oppose perfectly clear. Let others chime in. DeCausa (talk) 20:29, 2 June 2025 (UTC)

Support, Israeli Arabs is the most commonly used and recognizable term in reliable English-language sources. According to Google Books Ngram Viewer, Israeli Arabs appears significantly more often than alternatives like Arab citizens of Israel, Palestinian citizens of Israel, Palestinian Israelis, or Arab Israelis. WP:COMMONNAME suggests that the name most frequently used in reliable sources, not necessarily the most politically precise or self-identifying label, should be used. While terminology around this demographic is, understandably so, often sensitive and politicized, Israeli Arabs remains the clearest and most concise term. The current title is longer, less common in sources, and arguably no more neutral. The article explains the complexity of identity and labeling in the lead and body text. But, the title should reflect what readers are most likely to search and what reliable sources most often use. 2018rebel 20:21, 4 June 2025 (UTC)

• Stong oppose, AFAIK; many, if not most of Arab citizens of Israel consider the term "Israeli Arabs" as insulting or demeaning, Huldra (talk) 23:14, 4 June 2025 (UTC)
• Oppose, Arab and Israeli are two contradictory terms. Thepharoah17 (talk) 08:52, 6 June 2025 (UTC)

No, they're not. If someone lives in Israel and is Jewish by matrilineal descent, but all other ancestors are Arabic, they speak Arabic and they are Muslim, would you call that person "Israeli" or "Arab", or neither? I'd call them both. LachlanA (talk) 06:14, 18 June 2025 (UTC)

That's not a reasonable point of view. Arab citizens of Israel have Israeli identity cards and passports because their nationality is Israeli. And if you think clearly, you'll realize that if your belief became widespread, it could be cited by Israeli Jewish extremists as the justification for expelling all Arabs from Israel. -- Ikan Kekek (talk) 00:09, 2 July 2025 (UTC)

• Strongly opppose, "Arab Israeli" is a highly contentious term that many Arab citizens of Israel find offensive. According to WP:NPOVNAME, a non-neutral but common name must be the common name in use, and this is not the case for the term "Arab Israeli." FactCheck105 (talk)
• Oppose per DeCausa. It didn't take me long to learn that "Arab Israeli" is considered an insult for many Arabs, even if there are others that embrace it. Therefore whether or not it is a COMMONNAME is a moot point given that NPOVNAME supersedes this policy, per MOS:IDENTITY, which also recommends deferring to self-identity if it's not clear. It's otherwise understandable that not all Arab citizens of Israel identify as Israeli either, so aside from NPOV, it also becomes unrepresentative of the topic's scope by default. CNC (talk) 14:22, 29 June 2025 (UTC)
• Oppose per most of the others (not Thepharoah17), and based on the content of the article. A move to Palestinian citizens of Israel could be considered, again based on the content of the article, especially Arab citizens of Israel#List of demonyms, but that is not the question in this thread. I felt prompted to take a stand on this thread because this proposed move is so jarring and seems so tone deaf after I reread the relevant sections of the article. -- Ikan Kekek (talk) 00:04, 2 July 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Quote vs own reference

@Quebec99: In this edit you moved the quote Israeli government documents and media refer to Arab citizens as “Arabs” or “Israeli Arabs,” and some Arabs use those terms themselves. Global news media usually use similar phrasing to distinguish these residents from Arabs who live in the Palestinian territories. Most members of this community self-identify as "Palestinian citizens of Israel," and some identify just as "Palestinian" rejecting Israeli identity. Others prefer to be referred to as Arab citizens of Israel for various reasons to be it's own reference, but without attributing the source the quote is from. Was this the intention? Jonatan Svensson Glad (talk) 00:03, 5 July 2025 (UTC)

Yes... I split the quote away from the rest of a duplicated reference. It is one way to fix the "duplicate reference"... but another way is to remove the reference names and leave the complete reference... one with the quote, and one without. Quebec99 (talk) 10:42, 5 July 2025 (UTC)

Sources for Israeli-Arab in lede

I removed the sources for "Israeli-Arab" in the lede because they were all Israeli. They claimed to be recent, even though the preceding sources for "Palestinian citizens of Israel" were also recent such as Arab citizens of Israel#cite note-cfrel-7, Arab citizens of Israel#cite note-PI-13, and Arab citizens of Israel#cite note-14. Thepharoah17 (talk) 21:39, 6 August 2025 (UTC)

Can of worms

Arab citizens consider themselves to be an indigenous people

Guess who also does? :) Shoshin000 (talk) 13:18, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

Arab citizens are the subject of this article and if its reliably sourced and relevant, it doesn't matter who else does. Bedouins by the way are ra recognized indigenous group by world indigenous bodies. That recognition has a political, not just nativist, definition. Tiamut (talk) 14:04, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

Edit request 15 July 2026

Opening statement about the prevalence of the Palestinian identification is wrong and contradicted by the article itself: The statement "Most sources report that the majority of Arabs in Israel prefer to be identified as Palestinian citizens of Israel" is based on old and/or low quality sources. The sentiments of Arabs in Israel has significantly shifted away from the Palestinian identity since the events of October 7th, 2023. Multiple recent sources confirm this (example: Link), and the article itself contradicts this statement: "In a 2017 telephone poll, 40% of Arab citizens of Israel identified as "Arab in Israel / Arab citizen of Israel", 15% identified as "Palestinian", 8.9% as "Palestinian in Israel / Palestinian citizen of Israel", and 8.7% as "Arab";[39][45] the focus groups associated with the poll provided a different outcome, in which "there was consensus that Palestinian identity occupies a central place in their consciousness".[39] A November 2023 poll asked respondents from this demographic what the most important "component in their personal identity" was to them; 33 percent answered "Israeli citizenship", 32 percent "Arab identity", 23 percent "religious affiliation", and 8 percent "Palestinian identity".[46][47][48]".

I suggest to replace this statement with "Most sources report that the majority of Arabs in Israel prefer to be identified as Arab citizens of Israel". ~2026-39717-75 (talk) 11:37, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

 Not done: The claim in the article is backed by extensive citations to reliable sources that support it. Cherry-picking evidence from a couple of surveys isn't sufficient to contradict it. Day Creature (talk) 18:04, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

your reply comlletely ignores the contradiction in the article itself. Presenting a recent, reliable source to complement the contradiction in the article itself isn't "cherry picking". Will providing another recent source change your mind?

Thanks ~2026-39865-35 (talk) 09:54, 16 July 2026 (UTC)

 Not done: Per my previous response. If you have additional sources, please do provide them. Day Creature (talk) 18:19, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

Edit request 8 August 2026

Description of suggested change:

Updating the state of participation of Arab citizens at the vicil society level with landmark cases.

Diff:

−

Increased participation of Arab citizens was also seen at the civil society level.

+

Increased participation of Arab citizens was also seen at the civil society level. Israeli human rights organizations, including the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), have brought a series of Supreme Court cases on behalf of Arab citizens' equality, including a 2000 ruling (the Kaadan case) prohibiting the preferential allocation of state land to Jewish citizens, and a 2002 ruling — following a 1999 petition filed jointly with Adalah — requiring mixed cities to add Arabic to municipal signage.

~2026-43599-54 (talk) 20:40, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want made. Alpha Beta Delta Lambda (talk) 20:58, 8 August 2026 (UTC)