Israel, Islam in

Islam is the religion of the majority of the Arab citizens in Israel. According to the 2019 Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, there are just over 1.6 million Muslims in the State of Israel, comprising about 82 percent of the Arab population of about 1.9 million, residing in four geographical areas recognised as part of the State of Israel under international law: the Galilee, the Triangle (Arab towns and villages adjacent to the Green Line, the de facto borders of the State of Israel before the Six-Day War, in 1967), the Negev, and the “mixed cities,” such as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Ramla, and Lod (Lydda); about 69 percent live in northern Israel (Galilee and Haifa), 20 percent in and around Jerusalem, and 11 percent in southern Israel, in and around the Negev’s capital, Beʾer-Sheva’. The vast majority of Israeli Muslims consider themselves Sunnīs (86 percent), while the rest are either Shīʿī, Aḥmadī, or “Other,” a category that includes those who do not affiliate themselves with any specific branch of Islam. Some would identify as Ṣūfīs, others as Arab avoiding religious identification altogether (Al-Atawneh and Ali, 94). [from the article]