The Real Alternative to Despair, Alienation, and Crime Among Young Arabs: Quality Employment

Shadi Khaddad, CEO of Kivun Impact, argues that quality employment is the real alternative to despair, alienation, and crime among young Arabs. He calls for a policy combining firm enforcement with expanding employment opportunities, citing research that one in three Arab workers does not feel included in their workplace.

Shadi Khaddad, CEO of Kivun Impact, argues in an op-ed that the real alternative to despair, alienation, and crime among young Arabs is quality employment. He acknowledges the need for firm enforcement against criminal organizations but stresses that enforcement alone is insufficient to reduce violence in the long term. Alongside the fight, there is a need for policies that expand opportunities, strengthen hope, and create alternative life paths, with quality employment at the forefront. A quality workplace provides stability, responsibility, structure, a horizon, and a sense of belonging, strengthening ties to normative frameworks. It increases the personal cost of sliding into crime and creates an alternative path. Khaddad notes that investing in quality employment is an economic interest, especially during a shortage of quality manpower. He cites a joint study by Kivun Impact and the Accord Center at the Hebrew University, which found that one in three Arab workers does not feel included in their workplace. He argues that closing employment, productivity, and wage gaps could add tens of billions of shekels to the economy, though he does not provide a source for this figure. In conclusion, he calls for a national policy combining firm enforcement with expanding opportunities for quality employment, as part of a comprehensive solution.