This is the second consecutive year in which Sikkuy is publishing the Equality Index. The Equality Index was developed last year with the help of experts in various areas, who helped and guided the Sikkuy research staff. The team of experts included the steering committee, which is composed of leading academicians in their area: Prof. Mohammed Haj-Yihye, Prof. Rassem Hamaisy, Prof. David Nahmias and Prof. Yossi Yahav. We were also assisted by a series of additional content experts in the areas relevant to the Equality Index.

The Equality Index is unique in being the first overall index in Israel that systematically analyzes the gaps between Jews and Arabs in the State of Israel, based on data officially published by government institutions. The Equality Index is based on existing approaches of international models for measuring equality, such as the indexes used to measure the gaps between whites and Afro-American and Hispanic minorities in the United States (the Total Equality Index), the Ginni Index for measuring socioeconomic gaps, and indexes for measuring the gender gap in various social arenas (GDI, GEM, HDI) that were used by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Development Program.

In the previous report we explained that the Equality Index is designed to survey the inequality between Jews and Arabs in the three principal aspects of citizenship: equality before the law, equality in the political arena and equality in the socioeconomic sphere. We emphasized the importance of the three aspects and of their interconnectedness in promoting equality. However, for lack of time and data, this year too, as in 2006, the index deals with the socioeconomic aspect only, with attention to five central areas of life: education, health, employment, social welfare and housing. The Equality Index is a weighted index of the aggregate indexes, which are calculated for each one of the five areas on the basis of data collected for each area separately.

The Full Report