Page 6 - Ulpan-Or E-Tone 29.11.16 Advanced Level

E-Tone™: Ulpan-Or Weekly News Digest

Item #1 (Advanced Level)

The Arabs who Enlist

Most of the emotional soldiers at this year’s boot camp graduation
ceremony for recon battalion five eight five were Arab-Israelis. The
battalion, which up until now mostly held Bedouin soldiers, gets surprising
faces from a new sector in recent years: Israeli Christian-Arabs and Israeli
Muslim-Arabs who decided to enlist to the Israel Defense Forces. The
percent of enlisters in the Arab society, which constitutes one fifth of the
population of Israel, is very low – just one percent. But in the past three
years there’s an almost ten-fold increase, by Muslim-Arabs and Christian-
Arabs who decide to go to the army. “The most emotional moment that
happened to me in the army was when I finished boot camp and swore on
a Koran. There was someone who’s Jewish next to me and he swore on a
book of Torah. It was emotional for me that we’re not from the same
religion, but we live in the same country, everyone.” “Why would a
Muslim-Arab enlist to the Israel Defense Forces?” “A Muslim-Arab,
citizen of the state of Israel – that’s the answer.” When the Arab soldiers
go back home for the weekend in uniform, their neighbors in the villages
sometimes shout harassments at them. This great dilemma will continue to
accompany Arab teenagers who graduate from high school. If they enlist
to the IDF, they’ll integrate better into Israeli society, and their financial
future would be brighter [lit. pinker]. On the other hand, many Palestinians
will consider them to be double agents, and within Arab society there will
be those who’ll call them traitors. In our reality this conflict will only grow
more difficult each year.

Page 6 - Edition 11-29-16

Copyrighted and owned by Ulpan-Or. Any usage, copying and distribution without express permission from Ulpan-Or is prohibited.