The following is a response drafted by the Justice and Peace Commission June 18, 2013, in response to Israeli military plans to recruit Palestinian Christians holding Israeli passports.
The
case of Christian Arab citizens of Israel
-
Introduction
According
to Israeli law, all permanent residents of Israel, male and female, are
eligible to be called up to serve in the Israeli military.[1]
In fact, after 1948, two populations were not mobilized: ultra-Orthodox Jews
and Arabs. Ultra-Orthodox Jews were not mobilized because of agreements
reached between the rabbinical leaders of the community who opposed their
young people being drafted because they would be exposed to modern,
non-religious society and would not pursue lives of Torah study. In practice,
young men enrolled in Torah study were not drafted. This situation was
formalized in the Tal Law in 2002. Arabs were not drafted because they were
seen as identified with “the enemy” and unlikely to be loyal.
Recent
talk of drafting ultra-Orthodox and Arabs has been the result of the ruling
(2012) that determined that the Tal Law was not in accord with the Basic Laws
and the ensuing popular movement among Israeli citizens that all should serve
in the army.
In 1956,
Israeli reached an agreement with the Druze religious leadership by which
young non-religious Druze (the juhhal being those ignorant of
religious teaching) would be drafted whereas the religious youth (the uqqal
being those initiated into religious teaching) would be exempt, under a
similar understanding as that with the ultra-Orthodox community. In return,
the Israeli authorities recognized the Druze religious leadership as totally
independent from Muslim leadership and instituted a separate religious court
system. Circassian Muslims were drafted in 1958. Various Bedouin tribes from
the Galilee and from the Naqab also agreed to the mobilization of their young
men although no general conscription of Bedouin exists.
As early
as the 1950s, some Israeli officials promoted the mobilization of all Arabs.
Others focused on the Christian Arabs. Draft orders were in fact served to
the young Christians in Jish (a village with a large Maronite population). The
draft orders were not followed up, probably because the Arab Christians were
still seen as a security threat, being part of the general Arab population
and enjoying a high level of education.
- Why
does Israel seek to mobilize the Christians today?
Israel
does not need more soldiers in an age of technological warfare however the
military is seen as an institution that promotes social cohesion – a very
important melting pot in the Israeli reality of diversity. The army is seen
as a principal place of forming “national (Israeli-Zionist)” consciousness
and participating in the nation building project as conceived by the
authorities, i.e. promoting Israel as a Jewish national state. Army service
is seen as a tool to promote the Israelization of the Arab minority.
Identification with Israel rather than with Palestinian Arab society is
clearly an important goal.
The
mobilization of minorities is undoubtedly also motivated by the will “to
divide and rule” the Arab minority. By drafting some segments of the population,
the authorities succeed in dividing the society. This was clearly the case
with the mobilization of Druze, Bedouin and Circassian minorities who were
defined by government offices as “non-Arab”. Talk about drafting the
Christian Arabs rather than the Arabs in general (Muslims and Christians) is
clearly an attempt to drive a wedge between Christian and Muslim Arabs in
Israel.
- Why
do some Christians serve in the Israeli army?
Non-Arab
Christians are regularly drafted into the military. Since 1996, with the
increase of non-Arab Russian speaking Christians being drafted, Christian
soldiers were even allowed to swear the oath of loyalty on a copy of the New
Testament. Christian soldiers can ask for leave on Christian holidays. It is
also true though that extensive pressure is exerted on non-Jewish soldiers
(particularly those integrated into the Hebrew speaking, Jewish population)
by the rabbinate within the military to convert to Judaism and extensive
conversion courses are offered.
Some
Christian Arabs do volunteer for army service as do some Muslim Arabs. Their
motivations are usually either economic (the army provides well paid
employment to professional soldiers) or professional (the belief that
educational, occupational and other social opportunities, otherwise off
limits to Arabs, will open up after army service). There is also a belief
among some who serve in the army that if Arabs fulfill this duty they will
receive equal rights to those of the Jewish population. This will be
strengthened if the parliament passes proposed legislation now being debated
that offers certain privileges to those who serve in the army (particularly
employment in the bureaucracy of the state).
It is
important to note that the drive towards volunteering for army service among
Christian Arabs is particularly strong after manifestations of confessional
(Christian-Druze or Christian-Muslim) tension. This can be seen in the
relatively higher number of Christians being drafted in certain areas like
Kafr Yassif (bordering on the Druze village of Julis, where the residents are
Druze who serve in the military) or in Maghar (where tensions within the
village between Druze and Christians have erupted in violence in recent
years).
- What
should be the position of the Church?
Clearly
the Church teaches that Christians should be good citizens and participate
actively in society to promote the common good. The Church is committed to
raise consciousness about issues of justice, reconciliation, love of enemies
and non-violence as well as the ethical problems of war.
In her
promotion of awareness of justice issues, the Church should point out that
the Israeli army is used as an instrument promoting the interests of only one
part of the population, the Jews, to the detriment of the Palestinians. The
army is used as a means of imposing and maintaining the occupation of
Palestinian lands and thus preventing the Palestinians from achieving dignity
and independence. The army is primarily an army of aggression rather than an
army of defense as is clear in its patrolling of the Palestinian areas and
its defense of the settlers[2].
Furthermore,
in promoting an awareness of the rights to equality, the Church can point out
that Israel discriminates against her Arab citizens. The case of the Druze
and Bedouin is a particularly powerful testimony to the fact that army
service does not bring equality. The Druze and many Bedouin have been serving
for decades in the Israeli army and yet their villages are still grossly
underdeveloped when compared with neighboring Jewish areas.[3]
In fact, as Druze became better educated, so did their resistance to the
draft grow and since 1972 the Druze Initiative Committee has been actively
promoting refusal to serve in the army, assisting Druze youngsters who are imprisoned
for this refusal.
The Church
promotes good neighborly relations within the Arab minority: among
Christians, Muslims, Druze and all others. The use of army service to divide
the Arab population against itself is detrimental to the interests of the
Arabs as a community. The promotion of army service among the less educated
and more impoverished must be countered with the promotion of better
education, improved social conditions, more cohesion within the Arab minority
in Israel and a concerted struggle for equality in the State of Israel.
Furthermore,
the Church is also aware that many of the Arab youth in Israel are losing
their national, cultural and religious identity and many no longer identify
themselves as Arabs. In some places like the mixed cities (Jaffa, Ramleh,
Haifa, Lydda, etc) many young Christian Arabs try their best to assimilate
into the Jewish majority and identify with it. The Church sees her task as
one of educating our young people to accept themselves as they are, giving them
a balanced human, national and Christian education and an awareness of their
history, their rootedness in the land and a sense of identity that integrates
the different elements (Palestinian Arab, Christian and citizen of Israel)
rather than repressing any one of these elements. The bishops and priests
must help the faithful in the midst of this “crisis of identity”.
- What
about proposals regarding civil rather than military service?
Faced with
the understandable reticence of some Arabs to take up arms against their
brothers and sisters, the Israeli authorities have been proposing some kind
of civil service for Arab residents. What needs to be made clear is:
-
Civil service in the format proposed is equivalent to
military service and therefore equally problematic along the lines underlined
above.
-
The military authorities are those initiating the option to
do civil service with the same goals: legitimizing the status quo and
promoting a “national” consciousness that is opposed to the aspirations of
the Palestinian Arab people.
-
Despite the benign appearance of the forms of civil service
proposed, the underlying principle is the defense and legitimation of the
so-called “Jewish” state.
The
members of the Commission of Justice and Peace of the Assembly of Catholic
Ordinaries in the Holy Land ask that the Catholic Ordinaries address the many
issues that face the faithful in their day to day lives, including the
complex socio-political issues in the state of Israel.
|
[1] This
includes Jerusalem Arab residents. The past months have seen a rise in the
attempts
to draft some Jerusalem Christians into the military. Here we deal
only with Arab citizens of Israel.
[2]
The term settlers here is used to refer to those who participate in the illegal
colonization
of territories beyond the internationally recognized borders of
Israel, in the West Bank,
including East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
[3]
In fact, despite military service, Bedouin villages are being destroyed and
others struggle
for recognition in order to receive the most basic services in
the state.
Justice and Peace Commission
Founded on April 20, 1971, the Commission for Justice and Peace
functions under the auspices of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of
the Holy Land as a Catholic resource, liaison, and animation center to
further the social mission of the Church.
| Address: | Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center P.O.B. 20531 91204 Jerusalem |
| Tel. : (02)628 85 54 Fax : (02) 628 85 55 E-mail: ms@latinpat.org |
|
| President: | H.B.Patriach Michel Sabbah |
| Members: | Rt. Rev. David Nehaus,S.J. |
| Rev. Franz Brouwen M.A. | |
| Rev. Nikodemus, O.S.B | |
| Sr.Frida Nasser, S.J.A | |
| Mrs Rania Abu Murra | |
| Mrs Sawsan Bitar | |
| Mr. Yousef Daher | |
| Mr. Sami El -Yousef | |
| Mr. Raoul Rofa | |
| Mr. Francis Tams |
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