Ethnoracial classification and the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics: constructing Palestinian criminality in Israel (1990–2019)

ABSTRACT

Research on the census and ethnoracial classification shows that the categories collected by census agencies are political choices that not only reflect demographic reality but also, to some extent, construct it. In this article, using the case of the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, I focus on one type of official statistics, criminal justice statistics, and theorize how their changing presentation of ethnoracial categories can have a stigmatizing effect. Based on analyzing 30 years of the annual Statistical Abstract of Israel, I show that the criminal justice statistics section of this publication made several changes to the categories they presented including removing breakdowns by continent of origin/birth for Jews. Building on research on the history of crime statistics in the United States, I show how removing the continent of origin/birth for Jews had the effect of creating a binary comparison between Jews and Arabs, thus stigmatizing the latter group.

KEYWORDS:

• Census
• Israel
• Palestinians
• race and ethnicity
• crime statistics
• Mizrahi Jews

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Clem Aeppli, Jenae Carpenter, Yinon Cohen, Max Fineman, Joscha Legewie, Ellis Monk, Abby Zanger, and participants in the Harvard graduate student Jewish studies workshop for helpful comments, discussions, and/or support. Special thanks go to Yinon Cohen, who in addition to providing comments, convinced me that this paper was worth completing. I also wish to thank the reviewers for the helpful comments that improved the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In this paper, I utilise Mara Loveman’s definition of ethnoracial “as a generic, umbrella descriptor to refer to any categorical distinction that names or delimits sets of human beings who are construed to belong together naturally, as a collectivity or community, due to some source of heritable similarity” (Loveman 2014, 37). Additionally, throughout this article, I refer to Jews from the Middle East and North Africa as Mizrahi, even though the CBS does not use this classification in Israeli statistical documents. Terms such as “Arab Jews” (Shenhav 2006) do not encompass all the Jews included in this category since Turkish Jews and Iranian Jews, for instance, are not Arab. Further, Jews historically labelled with this term have adopted it to evoke a sense of unity and cohesion (Smooha 2010). I try to recognise the limitations and artificiality of “Mizrahi” as a category and consider that other possible groupings were possible, while also noting it is necessary to use it and remain accurate to existing research.

2 Cohen makes a similar argument with regard to the Israeli annual statistical abstract (2002).

3 That these continent breakdowns have a category for Europe/America demonstrates that they are intended to track Mizrahi/Ashkenazi divisions, since most Ashkenazi Jews would come from Europe or America.

4 The Law of Return states that those who are grandchildren of Jews can still immigrate under this law (Knesset Website n.d.), which means non-matrilineal Jews who are not considered Jewish by Jewish law can immigrate.

5 Mizrahi means “Eastern” in Hebrew.

6 The annual Statistical Abstracts of Israel can be found at two different locations on the CBS website. From 1996, they can be found at the following link https://www.cbs.gov.il/en/Pages/search/yearly.aspx and from 1990–1995 (and earlier) they can be found at https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/Pages/search/yearly.aspx#k=%23s=7. Rather than citing each one individually in the bibliography, I cite the website where all the abstracts can be found and include the year of the abstract when I cite specific tables (Central Bureau of Statistics n.d.).

7 The online version of the abstract cuts off the top of the 1995 table. It says “Percent Recidivists of Total Offenders in Each Cell” (first column) and “Absolute Numbers” (second column).

8 There are, however, some tables in the 2019 abstract with breakdowns of those born in the USSR and Ethiopia, and some with Israel born/born abroad.

9 The name changes from “Labour and Wages” in 2000 to “Labour Market” in 2019.