BICOM

The Israeli Chief of Staff, Gadi Eisenkot, met yesterday with the religious leader of Israel’s Druze community, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif.

The meeting was arranged to discuss tensions following the Nation-State Law and the concerns of the Druze community.

Eisenkot issued a statement on Tuesday encouraging soldiers and commanders to leave political disputes over the Nation-State Law outside of Israel Defence Forces (IDF). He said that “the camaraderie of soldiers with our Druze, Bedouin and other brothers from minority groups who serve in the IDF will continue to lead our path”.

Following the meeting, Sheikh Tarif agreed with Eisenkot and requested that all controversial political matters, including the Nation-State Law, remain separate from IDF matters of concern. Tarif said: “Members of the Druze community serve and will continue to serve in the IDF with heads held high, with determination and out of a sense of obligation to their homeland.” He went on to say that it was problematic to “blur the lines between the two. We will continue to campaign to fix the law so that it provides equal rights and citizenship.”

Yesterday, Druze MK Hamad Amar of Yisrael Beiteinu, called on Druze officers and soldiers serving in the IDF to keep the debate outside of the army.

A second Druze IDF officer announced yesterday that he intends to resign from the army in protest against the Nation State Law.  In a statement on his Facebook page he wrote that: “Until this day I have given the state my soul, I have risked my life. Until this day I stood by the state’s flag with pride and saluted it … in the end, am I a class B citizen?”

Captain Amir Jamal, also wrote of his concern over the Nation State Law on Facebook earlier this week. He wrote: “This morning when I woke up to go to my base, I asked myself: ‘Why?  Why do I have to serve the State of Israel? … I don’t want to continue, and I’m sure that hundreds of other people will stop serving and will be discharged from the IDF in the wake of your decision, Netanyahu, yours and your government’s.”

He has been suspended from the army for two weeks after being reminded that uniformed soldiers cannot participate in political discourse.