May 5, 2026
The CSPII Research team analyzed the official registry data of Islamic organizations in Israel.
Key insights include:
- 386 active Islamic organizations registered nationwide in 2026
- Presence in 125 cities/towns
- First registration of an Islamic organization in 1952
- Since then, exponential growth in the number of Islamic organizations
- More Islamic organizations have emerged in the last five years than in the previous ten years, from 2010 to 2020
The maps below illustrate how Islamic infrastructure has spread across Israel over time, with increasing representation in both major cities and smaller towns.
Interesting facts:
- Number of organizations responsible for building/maintaining mosques: 126
- Number of mosques in Israel: 252 (ref)
- Israel funds more than 100 mosques and pays the salaries of their imams (ref)
- Organizations dedicated to teaching Islam / dawa: 104
- Mosques where Imams were indicted for inciting jihad since 2010: 5
The top 5 cities in Israel by total number of Islamic organizations in 2026:
- Nazareth: 34
- Umm al-Fahm: 33
- Rahat: 25
- Taibeh: 23
- Jerusalem: 23
Here is a brief explanation of the research methodology:
- Data was downloaded from one source: Guidestar - Israeli Ministry of Justice https://www.guidestar.org.il/, a public data platform. The register contains data (including public name, ID, short description, address, dates of registration and dissolution) of charities registered in Israel. The register is maintained and updated on a regular basis and is a reliable and official source of information.
- Islamic organizations were identified as those containing a one or more keywords in the name or description. According to CSPII methodology, we used the following keywords (in Hebrew): "islam", "islamic", "muslim", "mosque", "masjid", "halal", "waqf", "awaqf".
- The generated list was verified by a CSPII expert to ensure that non-Islamic organizations were not listed.
- The bubble maps depict the number of Islamic organizations in Israel in different years.
- Islamic organizations adhere to the Islamic doctrine found in the Koran, Sira (Mohammed's biography) and the Hadith (Mohammed's traditions). 51% of this doctrine relates to non-Muslims. We define this 51% of the doctrine about non-Muslims as "Political Islam." Therefore, all Islamic organizations represent Political Islam to some extent.
Violent jihad funding
In 2025, an Israeli Islamic organization from the Islamic city Tamra was exposed as being used to funnel 1.5 million NIS ($500,000) to a Gaza-based violent jihad organization “Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)”. This was done under the disguise of “Donations for Gaza’s children”. The organization’s stated mission as written in the register, was “Treatment of children at risk, treatment of children in distress. Providing financial assistance to children in distress. Providing socio-psychological services to children. Preventing the phenomenon of begging among young children.”. Nothing in the mission statement would even give away the fact that this was an Islamic organization (beside maybe the location and the Arabic name, which holds an Islamic meaning: “Karban Tarik al-Ahsan”. Karban means sacrifice, Tarik meaning path, and al-Ahsan which means the highest degree of serving Allah). Thus, this Islamic organization was not counted by us until it was exposed by Israel’s security services.
Case study: Aid 48
The Islamic Association for Orphans and the Needy—also known as “Aid 48” and “Igatha 48”, aligned with the outlawed northern branch of “The Islamic Movement”, whose origin before the split was in the Muslim Brotherhood. The organization has recently been exposed as having ties to Hamas. Aid 48 works to help families of terrorist prisoners, and has expressed support for jihad openly.
Examples of organizations which are not counted
Organizations like Adalah whose stated mission is “to promote human rights in Israel in general and the rights of the Palestinian minority, citizens of Israel, in particular“, are not listed as Islamic ones. This is despite the fact that Adalah’s positions align with Israel’s adversaries, and point toward outcomes that would effectively end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. The organization supports the BDS movement, and spreading the idea that Israel is an “apartheid state” and that Israel commits “genocide”. The list also doesn’t contain Islamic political parties, which sometimes operate under the pretext of being concerned only with Arab ethnic interests and not Islamic ones (though, nevertheless, their actions are always aligned with the Islamic interests of Islamizing Israel). There are dozens of Israeli-based, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian organizations which, in practice, carry out jihad and work primarily for the Islamization of Israel, but are not counted as such.
Arab48—a popular Arabic-language digital news platform, named after the colloquial term “1948 Arabs” to describe Arabs who remained in Israel after its formation and hold an Israeli citizenship. It does not appear in the non-profit organizations register nor in the companies register.
High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel—an umbrella body that represents the political, civic, and religious leadership of the Arab-Palestinian community within Israel. In 2006 the organization published a document titled “The Future Vision for the Palestinian Arabs in Israel” calling for the transformation of Israel from a Jewish state into a “civic” one, calling for the “right of return” (allowing 6 million Muslim descendants of Palestinian refugees to enter Israel and get a citizenship, plus the 2 million from Gaza and 2.7 million in Judea and Samaria, leading to situation where Israel would be a Muslim-majority country).
Sikkuy-Aufoq, Mossawa Center, and many more, who like Adalah, purport to work on “structural inequality” of Muslims in Israel (budgets, policing, services), but in practice, work to increase segregation and prevent the cultural integration of Muslims in Israel.
Likewise, dozens of other Israel-registered organizations with anti-Israeli narratives are not listed, such as Machsom-Watch, Mothers, Combatants-For-Peace, Anti-Occupation-Bloc, Emek Shave, Peace Now, Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Families For Peace, Win-Peace etc.
See the interactive maps to explore the growth of Islamic organizations in other countries.
CSPII Israel Contact
Eyal Lior
CSPII Israel Country Director
[email protected]