To study the prevalence of cleft palate and cleft lip with or without cleft palate in an Israeli Arab town, questionnaires were sent to the parents of 1375 pupils in grades 1 and 2 in all seven primary schools in the town of Taibe, and 1281 responded. The information requested included data about siblings and members of the parental generation to give a total of 16 174, and the presence of consanguinity and history of exposure to medication, radiation, smoking or alcohol during pregnancy. There were four affected individuals among the index cases, of whom two had cleft palate only and two cleft lip with cleft palate, giving prevalence rates for each of these of 1.56/1000. Adding to these the number of affected siblings gave a total of 10 affected individuals; two with cleft palate only (0.39/1000) and eight with cleft lip with or without cleft palate (1.56/1000). Among the parental generation, of 16 reported affected individuals, two had cleft palate only (0.18/1000) and 14 cleft lip with or without cleft palate (1.26/1000). The overall prevalence rate for all 26 affected individuals was 1.6/1000; four of these had cleft palate only (0.24/1000) and 22 had cleft lip with or without cleft palate (1.36/1000). There were no cases whose mothers had been exposed to medication, radiation, smoking or alcohol during pregnancy. The effect of consanguinity was not significant (P < 0.92). This study shows that the prevalence of facial clefting in an Israeli Arab community is consistent with that in the general population worldwide.