23 - 29 August 2001
Issue No.548
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 23 - 29 August 2001 Issue No.548 |
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'A crack in the Zionist citadel'
A group of Druze leaders are calling on their co-religionists to reject service in the Israeli army, Lola Keilani reports from Amman
In a two-day meeting held in Amman, Druze leaders representing communities in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria endorsed a plan to launch a campaign calling on their brethren to reject conscription by the Israeli army.
Jumblatt(r) and an Israeli Druze Sheikh in Jordan
(photo: AFP)
The meeting, which was the initiative of Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, was attended by over 100 Israeli Druze. It was the second such gathering held in Amman by the religious community since May.
Jumblatt and a group of Israeli Druze signed a joint statement calling on members of the community to resist the Israeli draft.
The head of the Druze delegation from Israel, Said Nafaa, said his community will fight to put an end to its service in the Israeli army. "We have to stop the Israeli government's attempts to obliterate our Arab identity and make us Israelis," he told reporters. "We are Arabs and we will preserve our cultural identity," added Nafaa.
The Druze, an offshoot of Islam, is the only Arab group required to serve in the Israeli army. Many of them serve as sappers, trackers, prison wardens as well as interrogation officers in the Shen-Bet, Israel's internal intelligence apparatus.
The Druze community in Israel, members of which hold the country's nationality, is estimated to comprise 90,000 people, residing primarily in 16 villages. A large community of Druze living in the Golan Heights, Syrian territory occupied by Israel, do not carry the country's citizenship.
In 1956, Israel forced the Druze to serve in the army. Many Druze soldiers participated in Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
However, the nearly year-long Al-Aqsa Intifada has caused many Druze to take the Palestinians side and led a number of the community's leaders to speak out against compulsory military service.
Although scores of young Druze have recently refused to join the Israeli army, statistics show that approximately 88 per cent of the community's young men serve in its forces.
According to meeting attendees, many Druze have been tortured and arrested for their stands as conscientious objectors. The Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party, headed by Jumblatt, has said that three Israeli Druze who refused to serve in the army have been sentenced to prison since community leaders met to discuss the conscription issue in May.
"Druze living in Israel reaffirm their support for the Palestinian Intifada because they [Druze] are part of the people who are struggling to liberate their occupied land," Ghazi Aridi, Lebanon's Druze information minister, told the gathering. "The participants urge their brethren to expand the front of rejection to compulsory military service and to cooperate with our Arab brethren," meeting attendees said in a statement read out by Aridi.
The Palestinian National Authority expressed support for the move as did the Syrian government.
The Israeli Embassy in Jordan downplayed the significance of the Amman meeting. "The subject is certainly of interest to Israel, but the Druze are known to be loyal to the state of Israel," spokesman Amir Weissbrod told the Associated Press. "We don't believe that Jumblatt would be able to persuade Israeli Druze not to serve in the Israeli Defence Forces," he added.
Jumblatt told meeting participants "The Druze community must find a scheme to confront the compulsory [military] service of Druze in the Israeli army as this matter will help our Palestinian brethren in their uprising."
Jumblatt, who met with Jordan's King Abdullah on Monday, said that he will meet with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad soon "to discuss issues including the compulsory military service of Druze in Israel."
Yasser Abu Helaleh, a leading columnist for the Jordanian Al-Rai daily newspaper wrote "The Druze do not need new credentials to prove their loyalty to the Arab people or defend their life-long struggle and sacrifices. They have fought in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine against the mandatory powers and they have realised that it is now time to raise the flag of Arab loyalty and patriotism."
Abu Helaleh characterised the Druze campaign "as a crack in the Zionist citadel that isolated the Arabs within Israel and tried to integrate them in a manner serving Israeli interests through brainwashing, political carrots, privileges, and ministerial posts during the last 50 years."
It is within this context that participants in the meeting refused to invite Israeli cabinet minister of Druze origin, Saleh Tarif, to their gathering.
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