Alcohol Consumption Among Arabs in Israel: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Background: The Israeli society is a unique setting in which the Arabs are exposed to western alcohol consumption norms while living in Arab communities where alcohol consumption is not accepted. Objectives: To characterize Arab Muslim, Druze and Christian alcohol consumption behaviors and contingencies while being exposed to western style alcohol consumption. Methods: This study was a phenomenological qualitative study interviewing six focus groups and 13 individual Arab Muslims, Christians and Druze. Themes and categories were identified using qualitative methodology analysis. Results: Two concurrent contingencies exist for Arab Muslim men: on the one hand they describe pressure to drink because of social norms, and on the other hand they are reprehended for drinking, because of the religious interdiction. Therefore, they hide their drinking in secluded places. In addition, participants reported more heavy drinking among Muslim Men. Arab Christians reported drinking openly especially among men. Women do not drink and are looked down upon if they drink. Drinking may be viewed as a stage in life that a Muslim boy or young man goes through, he is expected to grow out of this stage and stop drinking while becoming religious. Conclusions/importance: Due to Muslim laws prohibiting alcohol consumption, alcohol consumption is not high, however it does exist especially among young men and when they drink they tend to drink heavily, more than the Arab Christians. Therefore, there is a need for interventions targeting younger Muslim men, to establish moderate drinking behaviors, if they chose to drink.

Keywords :

• alcohol
• Muslim
• Arab
• social pressure
• gender
• Israel

THE AUTHORS

Orna Baron-Epel, Phd, MPH, is a director of the School of Public Health at the University of Haifa, Israel. Her research interests are mainly: health promotion, social epidemiology, the social aspects of health behaviors, and injury prevention. Many of her studies try to decipher the differences in health and health behaviors among the different ethnic groups living in Israel, such as Jews, Arabs, and immigrants. Orna is involved in many research projects such as: social aspects of tobacco use, alcohol abuse, health and the built environment, social support, discrimination, road accidents, and injuries in Israel.

Shiran Bord, MPH, is a PhD candidate at the school of public health at the University of Haifa. Her PhD dissertation focus was on alcohol impaired driving among young adults in Israel. Shiran teaches and conducts research on health promotion topics, and she is a member at the center for evaluation of health promotion interventions at the University of Haifa.

Wafa Elias, PhD, is the Head of the Civil Engineering Department, SCE- Shamoon College of Engineering, and a lecturer and researcher at the Transportation Research Institute, Technion –Israel Institute of Technology. Her research interests include travel behavior and road safety mainly among the Israeli Arab minority.

Chen Zarecki, MPH, runs the national program for an active and healthy lifestyle at regional council Emek Yizrael, and lectures on health promotion at the University of Haifa. Her research focuses on adolescent risk behaviors, entertainment-education and health promotion intervention.

Yoram Shiftan, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Technion, where he teaches and conducts research in travel behavior with a focus on activity-based modeling and response to policies, the complex relationships between transport, the environment and land use, transport economics and project evaluation. Prof. Shiftan is the editor of Transport Policy and the chair of the International Association of Travel Behavior Research (IATBR). He is the co-chair of the Network on European Communications and Transport Activities Research (NECTAR) cluster on Environment and Policy, member of the World Conference Transportation Research (WCTR) scientific committee, and chair of its Transport Security Special Interest Group. Prof. Shiftan received his Ph.D. from MIT and since then has published dozens of papers and co-edited the books “Transportation Planning” in the series of Classics in Planning, and “Transition towards Sustainable Mobility, The Role of Instruments, Individuals and Institutions.”

Anat Gesser-Edelsburg, PhD, is the Head of Health Promotion Department at the Haifa University School of Public Health and an adjunct lecturer at the Sammy Ofer School of Communications, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. Her research focuses on health and risk communication, social marketing, entertainment-education, health promotion and persuasive communications. She received her B.A. (Summa Cum Laude) and Ph.D. (with Distinction) degrees in drama both from Tel-Aviv University, and completed her postdoctoral research at The Minerva Center for Human Rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Faculty of Law. Anat research has been supported by many academic, non-governmental organizations and governmental institutions.

Notice of correction:

Affiliations 2 and 3 have been reordered since the original online publication date of October 8, 2014.