The announcement that the Israeli government has launched a five-year initiative to integrate Druze, Circassian and Bedouin communities into the tech ecosystem is latest attempt to broaden participation in the Startup Nation.
New innovation centers promised by the Israel Innovation Authority—one in the Carmel, Galilee and Golan Heights region and another in the Negev—aim to enhance diversity and create infrastructure for technological entrepreneurship beyond Israel’s central hub and into its periphery.
The new centers will join 13 currently operating in the periphery, from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat, as part of an Israel Innovation Authority program implemented in cooperation with government entities.
For the Druze community, long defined by loyalty, military service and civic participation, the question is whether policy alone can translate into real economic opportunity, or if people will still need to venture away from home to secure economic success.
“As a minority, as a Druze, we believe that wherever you are, you should defend your country. And our country is the Jewish state,” said Hamza Salah.
Originally from the Druze village of Yarka in the Western Galilee, he now lives in Ramat Gan on the outskirts of Israel’s central tech hub and works as an engineer at Mobileye. A graduate in electrical engineering who served in the Israeli Air Force, he moved to the Tel Aviv area nearly a decade ago to advance his career.
Speaking to JNS, Salah confirmed that he moved to the center to have access to better jobs and more opportunities. That move, however, is far from typical for locals. He estimated that only a small fraction of people from his community take a similar path. “I think it’s 1% to 3% of the people that are doing it,” he said.
During the workweek, conversations are focused on tech funding, real estate and the buzz of living and operating in the Startup Nation. But when he ventures back home, things are different. “Once you go back for the weekend, you just speak about family.”
His personal goal is to help locals in Yarka by donating to his high school to build a new mentor program. “By doing that, I can help my community and my people to have a better place with different ideas and to have better perspectives.”
Herein lies the challenge for the government: addressing the geographical divide between where opportunities are concentrated and where the country’s communities are rooted. And while private companies such as Nvidia are boosting some regions with large campuses, this remain a challenge.
A concentrated innovation economy
According to Khaled Hasan, Director of Arab Society Economic Development at Ogen, an Israeli social lender, the issue is not talent or ambition, but access.
“Israel’s innovation economy is highly concentrated geographically and socially,” Hasan told JNS. When entrepreneurship pipelines depend on proximity to central hubs, professional networks and informal access to capital, entire communities remain underrepresented despite motivation and ability.
Hasan oversees Nimaa, a business development and mentorship program run by Ogen with the Authority for the Economic Development of Minorities at the Ministry for Social Equality. The program focuses on strengthening existing small businesses through tailored financial support, guidance and trust-based engagement. It forms part of Ogen’s wider work with Arab communities, including loans, mentoring and financial coaching for families, businesses and nonprofits.
The missing middle
Programs like Nimaa focus on what Hasan calls the “missing middle,” small businesses in the periphery that lack growth tools and mentorship. It pairs entrepreneurs with experienced mentors and provides guidance on topics such as cash flow, pricing and marketing. The aim is to help those business owners who carry heavy family and community obligations, which shape risk-taking and investment decisions and often result in businesses surviving but struggling to scale.
In April 2025, Ogen opened a regional hub in Shfaram in the Western Galilee, its first office outside Jerusalem. It is actively expanding into the Negev, bringing support closer to where businesses operate.
Hasan explained: “The aim is not to create parallel systems, but to ensure that existing economic tools, professional standards and opportunities are accessible to all communities, so growth, resilience and participation are shared more evenly across Israeli society.”
This approach mirrors the government’s innovation-center model that aims to offer a pathway for communities that may not have easy access to capital or networks, while also driving local employment and economic stability evenly across different regions.
Connecting the communities
Within the Druze community, expectations toward Israel and their relationship to the state have evolved alongside economic realities. Ingrained in their culture is loyalty and service, but recent years have seen this tested.
“There was a point that the group perspective about the country changed once the government outlined the ‘law of the Jewish state,’” Salah said, referring to the 2018 Nation-State Law.
While the shift was subtle, he said it sharpened the focus among some communities toward seeking more economic opportunities. “Tradition says that we need to defend our country, so we are doing so,” he said. “The Druze will continue to do so. But some adjustments need to be done.”
This newfound emphasis aligns with the government’s goal of moving minority integration away from symbolic inclusion to more measurable participation. Success will largely depend on whether the government is successful in addressing that “missing middle.”
Bringing opportunity home
Policymakers, communities and NGOs will all be watching how Israel’s ambitious five-year plan is implemented.
For Salah, local tech hubs and shared professional spaces in the north could bring meaningful change. “Once you bring places where people can mingle or have discussions about this topic, I think it can flourish,” he said.
For Hasan, the emphasis should lie in the coordination of networks that combine mentorship, financial tools and market access across local infrastructure. “The key is to move from isolated initiatives to an ecosystem approach,” he said.
If that ecosystem takes shape, Israel’s investment in minority tech sectors won’t be measured by how many people move to the central region, but by how many community members no longer need to do so.
