srael’s Druze Arabs, fiercely loyal to the state, feel let down after ‘paying with their blood’
After more than two decades of loyal service, Alim Abdallah was about to experience his first taste of civilian life.
A military discharge ceremony was planned for October 9, and two days later he was due to start a master’s degree.But instead of celebrating, his family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances gathered in their thousands to pay their last respects at his funeral.
About a million-strong, the global Druze community is largely spread across Israel, Lebanon and Syria. Some 130,000 Israeli Druze live in the Carmel and Galilee in the country’s north. A further 20,000 reside in the Golan Heights, territory Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 war. Most Druze there identify as Syrian and have rejected offers of Israeli citizenship.
What sets the tightly knit community, whose mother tongue is Arabic, apart from other minority communities within Israel’s borders is their fierce national pride. Druze men over 18 have been conscripted to the IDF since 1957 and often rise to positions of high rank, while many build careers in the police and security forces.
Back home, Mona cared for their two teenage daughters and 9-year-old son. Both girls were very scared, she said, while the younger one kept waking at night, worried about her father. “She kept crying, saying she was afraid something would happen to dad,” Mona said.
“He was on the way to the incident and was calming us down, saying ‘you don’t have anything to worry about, everything’s OK’.
Abdallah had rushed to the border on October 9 after hearing some members of his brigade had been attacked by militants who infiltrated from Lebanon.
When Abdallah arrived, two of his men were dead, but he managed to rescue another and take on the attackers – until he was fatally shot, his widow said.
According to Abdallah’s family, it later emerged that the insurgents had been heavily armed, not just with guns and ammunition but grenades, ropes and handcuffs.
the day after Abdallah died the IDF issued a statement saying that he “fell during an encounter with terrorists who infiltrated over the Lebanese border” while trying “to engage and neutralize the terrorists.”
Abdallah was buried in the military section of the cemetery in the village. Also buried there is Lt. Col. Salman Habaka, 33, another Druze fighter and one of the first soldiers to arrive at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, where more than 120 people, including children, were killed by Hamas, and others were taken hostage. Habaka was killed in Gaza just weeks later.
Meanwhile, anger and resentment have grown over planning laws surrounding building on agricultural land. In some cases, this has led to the demolition of Arab property and the imposition of massive fines.
But they are now on the backburner as the community has chosen to “unite and fight,” said Kamal-Mreeh, the first non-Jewish Israeli envoy in Washington DC for the Jewish Agency for Israel, a non-profit organization.
Part of her current role is to address university campuses and other audiences about Israel’s diversity.
“I teach the public about the complexities and the fact that I exist,” “I always open by saying ‘I’m an Israeli but not a Jew. I’m an Arab but not a Muslim. I’m a minority within the Arab minority. My mother tongue is Arabic, my religion is Druze and I’m an Israeli citizen – good luck.’”
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