Palestinian NGOs in Israel: A Campaign For Civic Equality in a Non-Civic State

ONE SIXTH OF ISRAELI CITIZENS ARE ARABS, many of whom identify themselves as Palestinians. Non-Jews in an avowedly Jewish state, Palestinian citizens enjoy many of the same formal democratic rights as Jews—in contrast to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip—yet Israeli law does not grant full equality to all, and the state confines its Arab citizens to the margins of the country's political life. In recent years, Palestinians in Israel have established a wide variety of political and social organizations seeking to challenge this marginality and reduce inequalities. Since the passing of the Law of Associations in 1980, the establishment of nearly 1000 Israeli Palestinian non-governmental organizations has been recorded. ¹ During this period, their social and political role has been central and growing, both quantitatively in terms of the growth of registered Palestinian organizations, and qualitatively in terms of the scope and sophistication of their activity.

This article considers the reasons behind the phenomenal growth of Palestinian non-governmental organizations in Israel and assesses their relationship with the state and the consequences this relationship bears upon Israeli civil society. NGOs are defined here as nonprofit organizations, private in that they are institutionally separate from the state, and bearing a distinct legal character. ² In the Israeli context, this legal character is provided by registration as an amuta [association, pl. amutot] with the Registry of Associations in the Ministry of the Interior. Palestinian NGOs in Israel—designated in this article by the acronym PINGOs (standing for "Palestinian Israeli NGOs")—are those organizations registered as amutot that are run by Palestinian citizens of Israel and aim mainly to serve Palestinian society inside the boundaries of the Green Line.

Although PINGOs deal with a host of issues, from organizing events of Palestinian culture to provision of after-school tuition, I focus on their unique role in attempting to elevate the civil status of the Palestinian minority in Israel. ³ I argue that PINGOs have successfully used democratic channels in innovative ways to advance the interests of Palestinian. These include consolidation of state-initiated reforms, enhancement of political participation of under-represented Palestinian citizens, and a struggle to redefine the boundaries of political discourse in Israel.

The civil campaign of PINGOs has suffered many constraints and limitations, however—first and foremost those inflicted by the state. As an ethnic state, Israel gives preference to considerations of Jewish dominance in the design and implementation of its laws and policies. Ethnic states link citizenship and full participation in society to ethnicity and descent. They do not act as blind or neutral arbitrators between citizens, nor do they offer them equal protection under the law. Scholars have sharply contrasted ethnic political systems with civic ones, which are pluralistic and aim to facilitate full participation in society for all their citizens. ⁴ In this respect, restrictions faced by PINGOs shed light on the limitations of democracy and civil society in Israel.

Despite the central influence of state authorities on the activities of PINGOs, an additional limitation on their effectiveness derives from their own patterns of activity—patterns that are common to NGOs everywhere. Critics have pointed to the fact that NGOs find it difficult to challenge power dynamics between majority and underprivileged groups, whether the marginality of the latter results from a national or ethnic conflict or from stark economic gaps between center and periphery. The limitation of NGOs are tied to their tendency to promote technical rather than political solutions to problems, which reduces pressure on the state rather than challenging the roots of inequality, their lack of coordination and splintered representation, the fact that they are not elected institutions and hence base their legitimacy on state recognition, and their dependency on external donors, who sometimes dictate agenda for action. ⁵

An analysis is presented in this article of the achievements and constraints of the civil campaign...