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Israel signed the December 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on March 30, 2007 but hasn't ratified it. It uses the term "persons with disabilities" for people with physical, sensory, mental, and/or emotional ones. It needs redefining to express greater equality, fairness and justice.
About 1.5 million Israelis have moderate to severe disabilities, but the percent of afflicted Israeli Arabs is double the level for Jews - 17.2% compared to 8.7% of their adult populations. In addition, disabled Arabs are greatly disadvantaged given that 19% of them didn't complete elementary school compared to 5% for Jews, and only 21% are employed compared to 49% for Jews.
Overall, disabled Israeli Arabs face multiple discriminations - for their faith as well as physical or emotional limitations. As a result, the quality of services provided them is poor and in some cases unavailable. For example:
-- documents are seldom translated into Arabic (including application forms for essential services) even though it's an official Israeli language along with Hebrew;
-- many services aren't provided in Arab areas, so burdensome travel is required to get what's available;
-- although Israeli law mandates that public places be accessible to disabled persons, few buildings in Arab communities comply, including National Insurance Institute (NII) branch offices providing services for the disabled;
-- many NII diagnostic committees have no Arabic speakers;
-- lacking medical services, Arabs with chronic disabilities eventually risk more severe ones;
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