Are There any Shi’ite Muslims in Israel?

This article deals with the question of whether there are Shi’ite Muslims living in Israel today. In the State of Israel, there are 1,157,000 Muslims who reside mainly in the Galilee, in the Triangle and in the Negev. The Muslim population is mostly Sunni, and the question is whether there are also Shi’ite Muslims living among them. There is a very small number of residents in the State of Israel who are Shi’ite Muslims belonging to the Imami Shi’ite trend. Before the establishment of the State of Israel there were seven Shi’ite villages in the eastern and western parts of the upper Galilee region. There are also remnants of Shi’ite families living in the country, especially in Nazareth and also in Haifa, as well as scores of Shi’ites from Southern Lebanon who had served in the ‘South Lebanese Army’ (SLA). When the Israeli army retreated from Lebanon in the year 2000, some of them came to reside in the Galilee and they follow a religious-Shi’ite way of life. Moreover, in recent years, there have appeared signs of a budding Shi’ite missionary movement on a very small scale. This article will discuss the issue of the Shi’ite presence in Israel from various perspectives.