Details

Arabs in Israel and the High-Tech Industry

Although almost twenty percent of the Israeli citizens are Arab their representation in Israel’s high-tech sector is a mere 2.8 percent. Following a workshop which looked into the lack of Arab representation in the media, this workshop aimed at finding answers to why so few Arab Israelis are employed in engineering jobs and in the High Tech industry and how this can be changed. The workshop took place on June 27, 2006 in Tel Aviv and was organized by the Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

The morning panel included high-tech entrepreneur Orni Patrushka; Nabeel Sakran, a senior engineer at Intel Haifa; Oracle Israel CEO Moshe Horev; Matrix CEO Moti Gutman; Adi Bildner, vice president for human resources at HP Israel; Itzik Benvenisti former manager of HP's personal computing division; and the dean of the Technion's School of Computer Engineering, Professor Oded Shmueli.

Panelists contended that one of the main problems is that Arab candidates do not apply for high-tech positions in Israel. This was refuted by some audience members, who said that they were computer science graduates who had applied to dozens of Israeli companies without receiving a response.

The members of the panel agreed that new solutions to increase the number of Arabs participating in Israel's high-tech sector should be pursued. One panelist noted that their company had placed help-wanted ads in Arabic newspapers, with few results. He said that senior management in every company must work to promote diversity in its work force to the benefit of the company. He added that companies should not wait for government support on the issue and suggested that they seek out projects in which Arab university graduates would have a relative advantage, such as writing software in Arabic or adapting programs for the Arab market.

In the afternoon session personal experiences were discussed. One problem is the lack of guidance on the Arab side as how to apply to companies and how to present their personal abilities. Many of them don’t apply in the first place to certain companies because they don’t believe they stand a chance even though some big companies make efforts to address Arabs. Only one in our graduates in the field of programming and engineering actually find employment. Most either set up stores for computer equipment or go into teaching.

The high-tech industry is the perfect field to initiate social changes. It is a merely profit oriented sector where only performance counts. The language is universal. Therefore, this chance shouldn’t be missed.

The findings of these series of seminars will be part of the annual Israeli Jewish-Arab Business conference held by the KAS and the CJAED. It will be held in November and promotes business ventures and initiatives between Israel’s Jews and Arabs and with international business partners.

Katja Tsafrir, June 28, 2006

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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 – 15:30

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?
• When will an Israeli high-tech company have an Arab CEO?
• How can the bug limiting the integration of Arab citizens in high-tech be countered?

The integration of the different communities in the workforce is one of the pertinent issues at the top of the agenda of many Western states. Different countries have diverse laws which ensure fair representation of communities which are not naturally integrated into the workforce. This emanates from an understanding that the workforce is a key factor which can lead to social change. The Israeli workforce is characterized by a lack of integration of Arab citizens which form 20% of Israel's population.

Further to the Jewish-Arab Business Conference, held in late 2005, by the Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development (CJAED) in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF) and the Abraham Fund Initiatives, CJAED has undertaken upon itself to lead the project of integrating Arab citizens into businesses in Israel's private sector. In recent months, a series of workshops has been initiated in order to explore this issue further.

The coming workshop, held by CJAED in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, will focus on Israel's high-tech industry with the aim of providing a comprehensive picture of the employment of Arab citizens in this industry, defining the obstacles and difficulties which hinder the employment of Arab university graduates and professionals, and finding pragmatic solutions to enable companies in the high-tech realm to integrate Arab candidates. Further to the discussion, pragmatic measures will be decided upon and a working plan will be drawn-up in order to improve the situation in leading Israeli and international companies in the field.

The workshop will include data on the integration of Arab citizens in high-tech and will comprise of two panels whose participants include CEOs of leading companies, HR professionals, representatives of manpower agencies and the Dean of the School of Computer Engineering at the Technion.

The central objective of the day is to reach a concrete plan which will lead to the employment of Arab

professionals and university graduates in the high-tech arena. The overall goal is to create a draft

plan which will lead to significant change within a limited time-frame.

Background: The total number of Arab students in Universities during 2003/4 is 9,369. Arab students form 9% of all undergraduate students; 4.1% of all Masters students; and 3.3% of all doctorate students. Simultaneously, the presence of university graduates from the Arab community in Israel's high-tech Industry and economy is almost non-existent.

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 significant social problem.

The assumption is that overcoming the barriers and becoming acquainted with the other community can be achieved mainly in the central and mainstream fields of national economics and industry.

CJAED continues its work to close the social and economic gaps between Israel's Arab and Jewish citizens. By supporting and promoting activities that develop joint business partnerships, facilitating job creation, and enhancing the position of Jewish and Arab women in economic life, CJAED fosters the integration of Israel's Arab population into mainstream society and economy. We believe that creating a fair, just and equitable society is beneficial for all Israel's citizens.

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Draft Initial Program:

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09:30: Reception and registration

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Opening words:

10:00-10:20 Helmi Kittani - Co-Director, Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development

10:20-10:35 Dr. Lars Hänsel - Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Representative to Israel

10:35-11:00 Yasser Awad – University of Haifa: Data on Arab university graduates in Israel's High-Tech Industry

11:00 – MK Ophir Pines-Paz, Minister of Technology, Culture and Sport

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First Working Session: 11:30-13:00

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

Facilitator: Dror Globerman, Ma'ariv

Participants:

Orni Patrushka – Businessman and High-Tech Entrepreneur, Board Member of The Abraham Fund Initiatives

Gil Rosenfeld – Former HP Israel Managing-Director

Nabeel Sakran – Senior Engineer, Intel Haifa

Moshe Horev – CEO, Oracle Israel

Moti Gutman – CEO & Managing Director, Matrix IT Ltd.

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

Adi Bildner – Deputy Director of Human Resources, HP Israel

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13:00-14:00 Lunch

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14:00-14:20 Steff Wertheimer: The Importance of Human Resources in Business

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Second Working Session: 14:20-15:30

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Decoding the Program: How can to pass the organizational filter

Facilitator: Hussam Abu Baker, The Abraham Fund Initiatives

Participants:

Dr. Avi Reimer – Pilat HR Consultancy; Chief Psychologist

Arab employees in Israeli High Tech Companies - Personal stories

Mahmud Asfur – Hardware Director, S-Systems