Details

Arabs in Israel and the High-Tech Industry

Working session hosted by the Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development (CJAED)

in cooperation with

the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF)

Tuesday, June 27th, 2006

__09:30 – 14:00

''Metropolitan Hotel, Tel Aviv''

• Why are dozens of Arab university graduates in the engineering and high-tech fields employed in education professions?
• Why is there a serious lack of Arabs in key positions in the high-tech industry?
• What can be done to counter the obstacles?

The Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development (CJAED) in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF) will be hosting a working session, which aims to explore reasons why Arabs in Israel who have graduated with degrees in the technology arena are absent from Israel's high-tech industry.

The objective of the working session is to provide a comprehensive picture of the situation, to define the obstacles and difficulties which prevent Arab graduates from being employed in the high-tech industry, and to construct a pragmatic working-plan which will enable companies in the high-tech realm to employ Arab candidates and allow them to overcome obstacles.

Further to the discussion, pragmatic measures will be decided upon and a working plan will be suggested in order to better the situation in leading Israeli and international companies in the field.

The central objective of the day is to reach a concrete plan which will lead to the employment of Arab graduates in the high-tech arena.

The Arab community comprises 20% of the total population in Israel, and the total number of Arab students in Universities during 2003/4 is 9,369. Simultaneously, the presence of university graduates from the Arab community in Israel's high-tech Industry and economy is almost non-existent.

The chance of an Arab university graduate to be employed in a profession which matches learnt skills is significantly lower then that of Jewish university graduates. This situation - in which the number of Arab graduates who find their place in Israel's high-tech industry is much smaller than the number of Arab students learning in engineering and similar faculties – leads to an increasingly pertinent social problem.

The Jewish and the Arab Israeli communities lead their economic agendas – in addition to their cultural, social and political agendas – separately from one another. This pattern reinforces and encourages the isolation of these two communities in the Israeli society and leads to suspicion and hostility. The assumption is that Jewish-Arab cooperation and partnerships in the business and economic realms can and must play a major role in permeating the separation barriers and in achieving a more inclusive Israeli society.

This is why the situation demands the attention of all those found in key and influential positions in the high-tech industry. CEOs, Directors, Managers, Founders and Partners of Venture Capitals and High Tech industries as well as manpower agencies need to unite in their effort to integrate an increasing number of Arab university graduates and professionals into various positions in the field of high-tech.

Draft Initial Program:

09:45: Reception and registration

Opening words:

10:00-10:05 Helmi Kittani - Co-Director, Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development

10:05-10:15 Dr. Lars Hansel – Konrad Adenauer Foundation Representative in Israel

10:15-10:35 Yasser Awad – University of Haifa: Statistics on Arabs in Israel's High-Tech Industry

10:35-11:00 (?) – International models of integration of different communities

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First Working Session: 11:15-12:45

Multi-Cultural Organization: What do High-Tech Companies do in order to Integrate Arab University Graduates?

Facilitator: Dror Globerman, Ma'ariv

Participants:

Gil Rosenfeld – Former HP Israel Managing-Director

Professor Oded Shmueli – Dean of School of Computer Engineering, Technicon

Directors and Deputy Directors of High-Tech Companies

12:45-13:15 Lunch

13:15-14:00 Steff Wertheimer: The Importance of Human Resources in Business

Second Working Session: 14:00-15:15

How can the Program be Decoded?

Facilitator: (?)

Participants:

(?) - Ness Technologies; Organizational Development Manager

(?) – Intel; Human Resources Manager

Dr. Avi Reimer – Pilat HR Consultancy; Chief Psychologist

Personal story – Arab employees in Israeli High Tech Companies