The principal problems of Israel’s Arab citizens are in the areas of national identity and cultural integration and not in the problems of earning a livelihood. Shmuel Toledano, the Prime Minister’s adviser on Arab affairs, asserted today in response to a request from the Israel government’s press office for a report on the situation.
He reported $30 million had been invested in a five-year improvement plan for Arab villages in Israel for such facilities as water supply, roads and electricity. Toledano added there was hardly an Arab village in Israel lacking an approach road or the other facilities. The thrust of the program for Israeli Arabs hereafter will be on problems of a socio-national nature, he said, adding that the bureau he heads would now begin to consider the problems of general contacts between Arabic and Jewish residents, adding that this move had been made possible by the calm along Israel’s borders.
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