Druze in Israel Issue Brief

The Druze population in Israel are part of the country’s Arab minority and a distinct ethnic and religious community in their own right. Part of a global Druze population of about 1.5 million people, they are Arabic speakers practicing an 11th century off-shoot of Ismaili Shiite theology. According to the most recent government figures, at the end of 2013, the Druze population in Israel numbered around 136,000 people and constituted 8% of the Arab population, or 1.7% of the total population in Israel.