The individual predicament of the Palestinian-Arabs resulting from the recognition accorded to their respective religious communities is often presented at par with that of Jewish citizens in Israel who also happen to be subject to rabbinical jurisdiction as well as that of members of Western religious minorities. This chapter argues that the Palestinian-Arab predicament is genuinely different from all these other predicaments including that of the Jewish citizens of Israel. It is different because it is much more acute in nature. That is so for two main reasons. First, ideas and mechanisms that have been suggested for relieving the predicament in Western democracies do not apply in the Israeli case because of Israel’s character as a Jewish state. This exclusion works actively as well to strengthen the religious identity of Palestinian-Arabs and thus tighten yet further the grip of Palestinian-Arab religious communities over their members. Second, in light of the long-lasting Palestinian (Arab)–Israeli conflict and the rift this conflict has created in minority-majority relations in Israel, secular forces among the Palestinian-Arabs, let alone religious ones, are reluctant to initiate reforms in the existing jurisdictional authority, which despite its obvious oppression still shows outwardly the remaining shreds of autonomy.

It is true that the accordance of jurisdictional authority to the Palestinian-Arab religious communities is a boost to their empowerment, vis-à-vis society at large or against their own members. However, identifying the religious jurisdictional power among the Palestinian-Arabs in Israel as a form of a liberal multicultural accommodation has one major normative implication. Vulnerable individual members among this community, especially women and children, become exposed to a wide variety of patriarchal religious norms and practices as prescribed by their respective religious institutions, all when such practices are legitimized in the name of liberalism and the accommodation of religious minorities. This is the individual predicament, also known in the literature on multiculturalism as the “internal minority” or “minority within the minority” problem. This chapter exposes the wide variety of norms originating in Palestinian-Arab religious jurisdiction that encroach on the individual liberty and freedom of Palestinian-Arabs. It will expose the different jurisdictional authorities – adjudicatory and prescriptive - possessed today by the Muslim, Christian, and Druze communities – a reality that originated in the Ottoman millet system.