On July 13, 2022, we appealed to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) demanding that information be collected, segmented, and published per Israelis’ third generation origin. The CBS’ current policy determines Israelis’ origins by the country of their father's birth. Thus, respondents whose fathers were born in Israel are deemed "Israelis."
In the appeal, Attorney Maskit Bendel described how the current policy harms the potential for researchers, decision makers, and the general public to obtain a complete and accurate depiction of socioeconomic gaps regarding a variety of critical issues, per Israelis’ countries of origin. Though ethnicity is a central variable in social stratification within Israeli society, as well as the creation and maintenance of gaps, its disregard generates a distorted narrative whereby various phenomena in Israeli society are allegedly devoid of an ethnic bias. This unacceptable policy thus violates CBS’ objectives, especially since the Bureau retains information on Israelis’ countries of origin, three or even four generations back, which is neither processed nor segmented or published.
On August 9, 2022, we received a response from the CBS indicating that they had accepted our request. The response noted that the Bureau understood the importance of the matter and its implications and would develop a work plan for the issue.