By YOSSI ALONI, ISRAEL TODAY—
At a time when the Israeli government is struggling to get ultra-Orthodox Jews into the army, a record number of Israeli Arabs are volunteering for national service.
Despite calls from leaders in the Arab community to shun national service, 3,000 young Israeli Arabs answered the call this year, a 76 percent increase from the 1,700 who volunteered last year.
At a ceremony earlier this week in Haifa, the National Service Administration welcomed the 3,000th Arab volunteer this year, Suriah Suad, who will do her national service by volunteering in the maternity ward at Ziv Hospital in Safed. Four other young Arab volunteers were presented with commendations for outstanding service.
The director of the National Service Administration, Sar Shalom Jarvi, noted that “it’s not easy these days” for Arabs to choose to serve the Jewish state. “Just this morning the bus drivers who brought the young Arab volunteers to this ceremony were threatened.”
Minister of Economy Naftali Bennett added, “Each of you has chosen to go forth and contribute to our nation, and this nation belongs to all of us. …There might be those who do not like it, who do not want to see Arab and Jew living together in health and happiness, but we will not allow them to win.”
It would be important to have the religious affiliations given.
Haifa, of course, has a large Arab Christian community. Arab Christians would be far more likely to volunteer than would Islamic Arabs, whose religion states that all Jews must be killed.
We mustn’t shy away from the truth.
I had a very interesting conversation with the then principal of the two schools of a large Arabic city in the Triangle. This took place at least ten years ago and the thrust of our discussion was initiated by him. His ideas of Arabic youth being equally obligated to serve the country after finishing their public education were very much in line with my own thinking. There might be problems for some to serve in the military (as with many of our own Jewish youth), but there are so many alternatives. There are endless opportunities to serve: in protecting the environment, to work in schools, old age homes, hospitals, etc. This would give every young person a chance to make a contribution and by doing so to earn full rights to all benefits for time and effort served. I remember one of my Muslim students telling me how strange she felt at university where she was a good two years younger than her Jewish counterparts. When I suggested she volunteer for alternatuve service, she at first resisted the idea, but later came to tell me that she was now working in after-school enrichment programs in South Tel Aviv. Good!