For the ‘start-up nation,’ an Arab challenge
Despite government investment and private goodwill, Israeli Arabs still struggle to integrate into the high-tech sector
Elhanan Miller is the former Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel
There is little Israel prides itself on more these days than its booming high-tech industry. Boasting the world’s highest per capita rate of scientists, technicians and engineers, as well as the highest proportional amount spent on research and development, Israel’s self-satisfaction is well merited.
But Israel’s success has largely skipped the country’s Arab minority, which comprises some 20 percent of the population. While 85,000 Jews work as engineers in Israeli high-tech, only 1,200 Arabs do so, according to figures provided by Tsofen, an Arab-Jewish advocacy group advocating the integration of Arab Israelis into high-tech; and five years ago, there were just 350 Arab high-tech engineers. That leaves Israeli Arabs in a worse position than citizens across the border in Jordan, experts say.
To bridge the staggering gap, technology entrepreneur Smadar Nehab, high-tech executive Yossi Cohen and social entrepreneur Sami Saadi founded Tsofen in 2008. Based in Nazareth, the largest Israeli Arab city, Tsofen was formed to address the two major hurdles impeding the integration of Arabs in Israeli high-tech: the inability of young university graduates to secure high-tech jobs in Jewish Israel, and the complete absence of high-tech companies in and around Arab cities at the time.
Tsofen tackles “subjective impediments,” as Saadi calls them, through four-month training courses covering everything from writing a good CV and improving English to software development. It works closely with tech companies, assigning its students real projects based on the needs of these companies. A mentorship program connects young graduates with Arab engineers employed in Israeli high-tech, who share valuable tips on winning the coveted jobs.
The Arab sector’s best and brightest high-school graduates usually opt to study medicine, pharmacy or law, professions they can easily practice in or near their hometowns. High-tech companies — mostly located in the greater Tel Aviv area — are simply not on their radar, Saadi said.
“This industry is still unknown. The few [Arabs] who did work in high-tech weren’t well-known in their villages,” he told The Times of Israel. “We believe that if thousands get jobs, and thousands start networking among themselves and creating start-ups, that will create success and people will want to imitate this success.”
Saadi recalled the case of a teacher from Umm Al-Fahm who was frustrated about not being able to work in his scientific field. A month after completing Tsofen’s training course, the teacher got a job with Philips.
“He came back to us in tears saying he spent two years looking for a job and we fulfilled his dream,” Saadi said.
But social gaps play an important role in blocking Arabs from the Jewish-dominated high-tech sector. Roni Floman, a high-tech consultant who volunteers with Tsofen and just published a book about Arab high-tech in Israel, said that one of her interviewees, a human resources executive at an Israeli high-tech company, was taken aback when many of her Arab candidates would bring along their relatives to the job interviews.
“At first she was surprised, then she simply decided to ignore it,” Floman said.
Tsofen exists on Jewish and European funds as well as Israeli, American and European government donations. But it will never realize its goal of 20 percent Arab representation in Israeli high-tech, experts agree, unless scientific education in Arab schools dramatically improves and companies subsequently choose to relocate to Arab cities.
At the moment, Nazareth serves as Tsofen’s model: in 2008, one high-tech company existed in Israel’s largest Arab city. Today, over 12 companies operate in the city, employing some 450 Arab engineers. Tsofen boasts having encouraged Israeli high-tech giants Amdocs and One1 to open branches in Nazareth.
Israeli high-tech entrepreneur Yitzhak Danziger said he and his partners decided to found Galil Software in Nazareth in 2008 for both economic and idealistic reasons. A provider of research and development and software to Israeli companies, Galil Software employs 150 software engineers, mostly Arabs.
Danziger said that Galil filled the need of Israeli high companies to keep their software development close to home, following their negative experience with offshore software outsourcing mostly in India and Eastern Europe.
“Our clients say that Galil’s engineers are 40-50 percent more productive than engineers in India,” Danziger told The Times of Israel, explaining why local companies are willing to pay Galil 10-20 percent more for its software services. “The output of our employees is just as good as that of software engineers in Herzliyah or Ramat Ha-Hayal (Israeli high-tech hubs).”
The Israeli government has also come to realize the importance of Arab high-tech. The Economics and Trade Ministry, headed by Naftali Bennett, has allocated NIS 414 million ($118 million) to the development of industrial zones in and around Arab cities. The ministry also reimburses employers for 30 percent of the salaries of Arab employees during their first three years of work.
Yet Rasem Natour, head of industry development in the Arab sector at the Ministry of Economy, said that Arab society still lacks an entrepreneurial spirit to match that of the Jewish majority.
“The initiative cannot come from the government,” he told The Times of Israel. “We need Arab entrepreneurship, which is sadly lacking.”
