Human Dignity Crisis in Israel Society - Essay Example

Name of student: Instructor’s Name: Coarse Code: Date Assignment is due: How has the history of conflict shaped the nature of Israeli society? Israeli conflict spans almost a century of open hostilities and political tensions, though the country was established in 1948 as a sovereign state. Some of the conflicts involve the Zionist movement establishment and the establishment of the modern State of Israel regarded by the people of the country as their historical homeland (James 23-78). Most of the Israeli conflicts start as a nationalist or political conflict over territorial competition ambitions for instance the Ottoman Empire collapse (Fred 21-35). This has experienced shifts over the years and it is growing from regional Arab–Israeli conflict and becoming more of conflict between the local Israeli and the Palestinian. This paper looks into the Israeli conflict and its effects on the people of the country over years. It digs deep into how the conflict in the country has shaped the nature of the society. The conflicts have created human dignity crisis in Israel society. This is a form of insecurity surpassing elements of disparity including religion race and others within the society (David 45-98). The United Nations Office involved in the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported lately that Gaza strip humanitarian crisis has grown significantly and understatement would lead to more insecurity in the region (James 23-78). The UN states that Israeli situation is actually a "human dignity crisis" especially around Gaza strip. The crisis entails massive destruction of human lives and deterioration of infrastructure as well as other basic services (Fred 21-35). There is widespread of fear and panic in the society with 80 percent of the Israeli population not able to support themselves and forced to depend on other sources for humanitarian assistance (Bard 202-324). The International Red Cross reported the situation as being "intolerable" to the society in general (Muhammad 92-212). The crises have affected the nature of society in the aspect of religion. The society experiences religious insecurity. There are several religions in the Israeli society including Jews and Muslims (Fred 21-35). The conflicts in the region have created a disparity on the two religions creating a division in the society and developing inborn hatred in the respective religion over the other (Bard 202-324). The religions especially Christians and Muslims develop uncompromising positions in support of the party of interests in these conflicts. The division in religion is evident especially with the case of Christian Zionists supporting Jews in the conflicts (James 23-78). This creates rivalry in the society and destabilizes the religious aspect in the religion with all religious groups fighting for recognition. Society evidence shows that, Gush Emunim and Hamas groups evoke varying religious arguments on the legitimacy of religion in the land. According to the Jews, Israel is their land and God promised them as the Children of Israel (Bard 202-324). History in the land reckons that Jewish people ruled the land of Israel from the 11th to the 6th century BCE, which is why the Jews stay put as the main religion of the land. Muslims also have their claim as having religious priority referring to their Quran (David 45-98). Their argument is contrary to the Jewish, they argue that Israel was a promise to Abraham descendants and they are legitimate descendants. The religious conflicts have inflicted an element of tension and unstable society with experiences of attacks regularly in the land (Muhammad 92-212). The Israeli society has fall short of new developments because of the crisis. There are humanitarian, economic, medical, and industrial effects that developed out of the Israeli crisis. These effects bring down established developments thereby resulting in lag on developmental issues. This in turn has affected the country in terms of societal changes. The Israeli society composes of various ethnic groups including Arabs and Jews. Because of the crisis, the society faces discrimination of the minority groups and development in these regions has been on the lowest levels (James 23-78). What are the effects on demographic trends within Israeli Society? Israel has for long continued existence as mainly a "Jewish State" relying upon maintenance from the Jewish group holding the demographic majority. During early 1990s, the population growth rate in Israel was about 3% per year (Fred 21-35). This number has gone extremely high and rates at 5% per year because of massive immigration. The Arab population rate of growth is 2.6% and for Jewish population it is 1.7%. Arab Muslims are the latest high growing population in Israel rating at 2.8% for 2008 (James 23-78). Israeli politicians, demographers and bureaucrats treat Jewish population growth promotion as the main question in any research as well as in the process of policymaking. From the demographic reports in the country, the country is receiving high levels of growth of the foreigners (Muhammad 92-212). From the latest demographic reports, non-Jewish population accounted for 30% of the population and the number is prospected to grow at an alarming rate due high rates of migrations into the country. Non-Jewish population growth in the Israeli population is a threat to the Jewish demographic majority and broadly to the security of Israel (James 23-78). A report from the ministry of defense lately indicated that most of the people (56%) prosecuted with crimes of thefts and suicidal bomb attempts are foreigners working and residing in the land (Fred 21-35). According to reports by the member of Jewish National Fund Board, Daniel Orenstein, Israel holds the second largest number of population in the developed world. In his academic article, Orenstein states that, as elsewhere, there is a level of overpopulation in Israel and it is a real stressor on the environment in the country. His argument is that there is a level of threat on the environmentalists because of high and uncontrolled population growth in the region (Muhammad 92-212). From the death and birth rate demographics, Israel has an alarming rate of population decline. The death rate exceeds the birth rate in Israel population. According to Haaretz research, between the years 1980s and 2000 birthrate has been decreasing gradually (Fred 21-35). The Muslim sector has had a stable birth rate at 4.6-4.7 children for a single woman and the Christians slightly above at five per woman (David 45-98). In the recent years, there is a gradual decline in birthrate with 2.88 children as an average of the Jewish population. For the death rates in the Israeli society, an average of 6.18 deaths/1,000 population is most prominent. Reports in 2006 indicated 38,666 deaths within the year with 33,568 of the deaths being Jews and 3,078 Muslims (James 23-78). The rate is high because of several factors including wars and conflicts as well as increased birth controls. The decline in population growth is a disaster in the country because it posses insecurity in the labor production in various sectors of the economy. The country therefore faces reduced production forcing the exportation of labor into the country at a cost (Fred 21-35). Demographics on literacy levels reveal that most of the population aged 15 and over have a capacity of reading and writing. In the total Israeli population, 95.4% of the people are literate with 97.3% of males and 93.6% of the females. In the country, there is available compulsory education for children aged between 5 and 18 years (Bard 202-324). The rest of the education is not free per se but the Israeli government and other individual organizations subsidize it. The high literacy levels in the country create a wide field of professionals and improve the quality of labor provided by the population (Lewis 234-257). This has developed skilled labor force in the country and enhanced innovations ranking the country as among the highly industrious countries from the skilful labor within its population (James 23-78). Describe the social structure of Israel in terms of major ethnic groups or social identities Demographics of Israeli ethnics groups compose mainly of Jews, Arabs, Armenians and Samaritans. From the Central Bureau of Statistics in Israel, as of the year 2009, Israel’s population stood at 7 million people. From the population 76% was mainly Jews of any background. Among this Jews, 68% were Israeli-born with them being mostly third-generation Israelis (David 45-98). The rest was Jewish immigrants to Israel with 22% of them coming from Europe and Americas. There were also a 10% of the Jews migrating from Africa and Asia as well as the Arab countries. Nearly half of the Jews are descendants of Jews who migrated into the country from Europe, around the same number migrated from Arab countries, including Turkey, Iran and Central Asia (Fred 21-35). Arabs in Israel account for a large portion of the country’s population. Arab citizens in Israel are the Arabs who remained in Israel during the Palestinian exodus of 1948 that followed the state of Israel establishment (Lewis 234-257). This included a number of them who were born within the borders of the state during this period and those who left during the exodus but re-entered the country by means that are lawfully accepted. The figure of Arabs stands at 209,000 in Israel. This number of Arabs account for 14% of the total population in the country. Most of the Arab citizens within Israel are Muslims (the Sunni branch of Islam) but there are still a few Christians, although they are a minority group (Muhammad 92-212). Armenians are non-Arab non-Jewish citizens of Israel. More than 5,000 people in the Israel population ascribe to this ethnic group. Most of them reside in Jerusalem while a few are residents of Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jaffa. Armenians hold a Patriarchate in Jerusalem as well as churches in Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem and Bethlehem (Fred 21-35). Samaritans are also on the list of ethnic groups in Israel. They are specifically an ethno-religious group. The group claims ancestry as from Israelite inhabitants with connections to Samaria in the ancient times from the Babylonian Exile towards the start of Common Era. From the 2007 population statistics, there are estimated 712 Samaritans in Israel living in Holon and at Mount Gerizim (David 45-98). This division in Israel into several ethnic groups has been a legacy of the cultural diversity. The groups have been separated by religion in some ways with two most prominent divisions including Muslims and Christians (Fred 21-35). It is also a far-flung nature of the Diaspora in the Jewish region. Reports reveal that Jews come from over 103 countries into Israel therefore a disparity in language and cultures of the migrant groups. There has been a growing industrializing economy in Israel that creates usual divisions of stratification, class, and socioeconomic inequality (Muhammad 92-212). These class divisions coincide with the respective ethnic divisions in Israel. Jews are the most prominent ethnic groups in Israel and they take up the high-ranking jobs with a better pay while the minority as Samaritans are laborers in many farms in the region (David 45-98). Jews are also the most powerful politically taking up over 80% of the political posts because they have the power of the vote being the majority of the population. The representation of minor groups like Samaritans is only at 2%. The same applies with opportunities where Arabs and Jews have higher opportunities to excel than the minority groups stratified by their poor status and inadequate resources within their exposure (Muhammad 92-212). Works Cited Bard, M. Middle East Conflict. Indiana polis: Alpha Books, 1999, p. 202-324. David, L. The Arab-Israeli Conflict A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, 45-98. Fred, J. The Arab-Israeli dilemma. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1985, 21- 35. James, L. The Israel-Palestine Conflict: 100 Years of War. New York & Cambridge, 2005, p.23-78. Lewis, B. The Jews of Islam. Princeton, NJ: Princeton, 1984, 234-257. Muhammad, H. “Relations of Muslims with non-Muslims”. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 7.1 (1986): 92-212. 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