1 out of every 16 Druze men aged 18 and over is an IDF disabled person, according to the data of the Central Bureau of Statistics on the Druze population published on the occasion of the Nabi Shuayev holiday that ended yesterday (Friday). According to the data, out of the 67.4 thousand disabled IDF soldiers (in 2022), 3.4 thousand (5.0%) are Druze, the data also reveal the housing crisis the community is in.
According to the CBS, the Druze community in Israel numbering approximately 152 thousand people is the third largest Druze community in the world after Syria and Lebanon. 80.5% of the Druze live in the North District, in 17 settlements. 18.6% live in two settlements in the Haifa District (Dalit El Carmel and Usfia) Most of the Druze settlements are homogeneous or have an absolute majority of the Druze. In Ma’ar, the Druze make up 57% of the population 0-14 (among Jews – 27.5%, Muslims – 32.3%, and among Christians – 20.6%).
A Druze household contains an average of 3.77 people, second only to the Muslim household (4.3 people on average). In contrast, the average number of children per Druze woman is 1.85 and the population growth rate is 1.1%. Hence the average household is larger than the average nuclear family. This indicates a housing crisis among the Druze, many young families are unable to build a house apart from their extended family.
Data from the register of people with disabilities raises the hidden price of Druze participation in the security forces. Of the 67.4 thousand IDF disabled (in 2022), 3.4 thousand (5.0%) are Druze. The rate of IDF disabled among Druze aged 18 and over was 31.7 per 1,000 people, significantly higher than the rate among Jews and others aged 18 and over ( 11.9 per 1,000 people). A significant gap is also found among Druze men compared to Jewish and other men (62.6 compared to 22.5 per 1,000 people, respectively). That is, 1 out of every 16 Druze men aged 18 and over is disabled by the IDF, compared to 1 out of every 44.4 Jewish and other men aged 18 and over. In total, about 20.4 thousand Druze are registered as having a disability. The two most common types of disability among Druze with disabilities were physical disability and illnesses Chronicity.
83.8% of Druze households were households with employees, higher than the percentage among Muslims (79.3%) and the percentage among Arab Christians (77.7%). But the proportion of Druze men participating in the workforce reached 66.2% in 2023 (compared to 63.7% among Muslims and 68.0% among Arab Christians). Among Druze women, the rate of participation in the labor force reached 47.4% (compared to 34.0% among Muslim women and 56.7% among Arab Christian women).
In 2023, 65.6 thousand Druze were employed, the employment rate among Druze reached 54.9%. 28.3% of the employed Druze worked as sales and service workers and 23.2% worked as professional workers in industry and construction and other professional workers. 16.6% worked in the local, public administration and security and national insurance sector, 13.5% worked in the education sector and 13.4% of the employed worked in the industry sector. In other words, most of the employed are engaged in professions where the salary is low or medium. Considering the figure of the employed, this indicates a poor population in relation to the general Israeli population.
In 2022, 24.1 thousand Druze were registered in the social services departments of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Security. The rate of registrations among the entire Druze population was 161.5 per 1,000 people, and was higher than the rate of registrations among the entire population of Israel (118.2 per 1,000 people). 53.6% of the registered Druze were women and 46.4% were men.
The segmentation of the data shows that the rate of those registered in social services departments among the Druze was significantly higher than the rate of those registered in the general population in the 25-64 age group (44.1% versus 34.5%, respectively) and in the 65-74 age group (by a smaller margin).
The situation is different among the young people up to the age of 25, that is, those who depend on others for their livelihood. The group that is supposed to integrate into the labor market is more in need of welfare services, which teaches about the average wage level and poverty rates. On the other hand, the social safety net caters to the more vulnerable populations, young people up to the age of 25.
An examination of the Druze education system reveals that 1.8% of the Druze did not study at all. Of those who did study: 1.2% did not receive a diploma, 26.6% had elementary or middle school education, 11.0% graduated from high school without a matriculation certificate, 37.4% received a matriculation certificate, 4.0% received a certificate of completion from a post-secondary school that was not an academic certificate and 13.1% received an academic degree or an academic certificate.
43.5% of the Druze continued to study for a bachelor’s degree within 8 years of graduating from high school, compared to 34.6% of high school graduates in Arab education. The number of Druze students decreased by 0.2% last year compared to the previous year. But since 2000, the number of Druze students has increased 3.5 times. However, the gender gap among students continues to exist. Only 26.3% of Druze men continued to study for a bachelor’s degree within 8 years of finishing high school, compared to 59.3% of Druze women.
In 2021, the rate of those convicted in criminal trials among the Druze population was about 301 per 100,000 people. This rate is higher than the rate among all Israeli residents who are not Druze (about 271 per 100,000 people). The rate of those facing trial among the Druze population in 2021 was about 329 per 100,000 people.
The segmentation of offenses presents a more complex picture. The most frequent offenses among the Druze convicts were: offenses against public order (23.7%), licensing offenses (23.1%) and offenses against human life and limb (16.4%). From this it can be assumed that most of the convicts were convicted following protests and by virtue of the “Kaminitz Law”.
