Mixed cities

rdf:langString Mixed cities

rdf:langString In Israel, the mixed cities (Hebrew: ערים מעורבות, romanized: 'arim me'oravot, Arabic: المدن المختلطة, romanized: al-mudun al-mukhtalita) or mixed towns are the eight cities with a significant number of both Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. The term "mixed cities" should not be confused with multicultural cities, nor understood to necessarily imply social integration, as scholars describe significant geographical segregation and social exclusion within each of the eight cities, contradicting "Israel's self-image as a pluralist and democratic society". The eight mixed Jewish-Arab cities, defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics as those with more than 10% of the population registered as "Arabs", include seven within Israel-proper: Haifa, Lod, Ramle, Jaffa (now a part of Tel Aviv), Acre, Nof HaGalil (formerly Nazareth Illit), and Ma'alot Tarshiha. Approximately 10% of Israeli Arabs live in these seven cities. The eighth city is Jerusalem, in which the Arab part of the city, East Jerusalem, has been annexed by Israel but is not recognized as such under international law. The eight mixed cities are the main places in Israel in which Jews and Arabs encounter each other, and very limited population mixing exists outside of these eight cities. As a result the topic has attracted significant scholarly focus over many years, and since the Second Intifada it became at the crux of social science scholarship in Israel.