Integration Through Innovation: Minorities in Israel, the High-Tech Industry and Lessons for Europe

The AJC Transatlantic Institute and MEP’s Péter Niedermüller and Heinz K. Becker co-organized the event "Integration Through Innovation: Minorities in Israel, the High-Tech Industry and Lessons for Europe” in the European Parliament.

The keynote address was delivered by Eiman Saif, who serves in the Prime Minister's Office as the General Director of the Authority for the Economic Development of the Arab, Druze and Circassian Sectors. Mr. Saif praised the initiatives closing the labor market participation gap between Arab and Jewish Israelis in recent years.

Smadar Nehab, Executive Director of Tsofen, spoke next. Ms. Nehab cited the importance of local job opportunities. The most important step, Nehab explained, was to attract tech firms to Arab-Israeli areas of the country, pointing to Microsoft's new research building in Nazareth as a prime example.

Lastly, Ibrahim Sana, founder of the first Bedouin hi-tech company in Israel, addressed the crowd. Sana discussed how the Bedouin, a small, nomadic, minority group in Israel, lag behind the rest of the country economically. Sana’s company, Sadel Tech, gives Bedouins looking to work in hi-tech the break many of them need.