Jewish World Review May 10, 2013
What "respectable" organizations -- including Jewish ones -- and the international media are trying their hardest to cover up
JewishWorldReview.com | In
2010, Cpl. Eleanor Joseph became the first female Arab combat soldier
in the Israel Defense Force. Joseph, a Christian Arab told Israel's
daily Ma'ariv that her good luck charm is a drawing of the Star of David
with the caption: "I have no other land, even when my ground is
burning."
Her commander drew it for her.
Joseph
explained, "It is a phrase that strengthens me. Every time I experience
hardship, I read it. Because I was born here. The people I love live
here: my parents, my friends. This is a Jewish state? Yes, it is. But
it's also my country. I can't imagine living in any other place. I think
every person should serve in the army. You live here? You make your
home here? Then go defend your country. What does it matter that I'm an
Arab?"
Joseph's
story represents an incipient trend of integration among Israel's Arab
community. Among other things, this trend is manifest in the
consistently rising number of Israeli Arab students who elect to study
in Hebrew-language schools and in the rising number of Israeli Arabs who
elect to serve in national service, the civilian equivalent of military
service.
A
poll of Arab youth carried out in late 2007 made clear how widespread
this integrationist impulse has become. 75 percent of Arab youth aged
16-22 supported voluntary national service.
And
yet, despite these sentiments and developments, Arab Israelis who seek
to integrate into Israeli society and reject the separatist messages of
their political leaders are forced to contend with extraordinary social
pressures and even coercion to prevent them from acting in accordance
with their wishes.
A
new study completed this week by Im Tirtzu exposes the vast array of
NGOs generously funded by the supposedly pro-Israel New Israel Fund as
well as by foreign governments which is running a campaign to oppose
Cpl. Joseph and her comrades — Arabs and Jews alike. Since 1999 these
groups have been conducting a campaign to undermine Arab integration
into Israeli society specifically and demoralize and reduce the social
standing of those who serve in the IDF, national service and IDF
reserves generally. The campaign is being carried out on a dual track of
discouraging Israeli Arabs from serving in the IDF or national service,
and of opposing government benefits to IDF veterans, reservists, and
those who undertook national service by claiming that these benefits
unjustly discriminate against Israeli Arabs.
Im
Tirtzu's report argues that the dual nature of the campaign,
underwritten by the same funders shows that the goal "is to prolong
irredentism or non-integration of the Arab sector in order to encourage
it to act as a sector demanding national recognition and advance the aim
of transforming the State of Israel from a Jewish democratic state into
a binational state."
As
the report notes, it is common practice in many countries to give
government benefits and preferential treatment to military veterans and
reservists. The US government provides massive assistance to veterans in
employment, education, housing and other areas. The purpose of these
benefits is to raise general motivation to serve and to reward those who
have because the American people believe that their personal service
advances the interests of American society as a whole.
To
substantiate its claims against these NIF and foreign government
financed Israeli NGOs, Im Tirtzu's organized its report as a timeline of
efforts undertaken by various NGOs to advance the goals of Arab
separatism and reducing the morale and social status of IDF and national
service veterans and reservists across the board. Although the
Hebrew-language report is worth reading in its entirety, a few examples
will suffice to show the scope of these efforts.
In
1999 the Association for Civil Rights in Israel published a report
which claimed that it was discriminatory for workplaces to make military
service a qualification for employment. The report went so far as to
insinuate that Israel could be likened to South Africa's apartheid
regime due to workplace preference for veterans.
That
report was followed by a series of petitions to the Supreme Court
beginning in 2002 submitted by ACRI, Adalah and other groups to overturn
laws and government decisions that give preferential treatment to IDF
veterans and those who served in National Service. The petitions have
not led to outright court victories. But in a number of cases, the
lawsuits were dropped after the government cancelled the benefits under
challenge.
These
groups have opposed every sort of benefit, including tuition discounts
for students, differential reductions on government child allowances for
those who served in the military and national service and those who did
not, preferential treatment in state land tenders and grants and other
housing benefits.
Some
of these court cases directly targeted benefits to Arab IDF veterans.
For instance in 2005 Adalah petitioned the Court against the Israel
Lands Authority for making military service a requirement for receiving
ILA land grants in Bedouin villages. And in 2009 Adalah petitioned the
Court to revoke preferential treatment to Cirassian veterans in an ILA
tender for homesteads in Cama, a Cirassian village in the Galilee.
ACRI
receives nearly a million dollars every year from NIF, and receives
funding as well from the EU, the UK, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Spain,
Belgium, the Ford Foundation and Christian Aid.
Adalah
similarly receives massive funding from the NIF, the EU, Switzerland
andScandinavian governments through their joint foreign aid organs. It
also receives funding from George Soros's Open Society Institute.
Some
of the organizations involved are both funders and participants. For
instance, the Abraham Fund has participated in Supreme Court petitions
against benefits to those who have served. And it is also a donor to
Mossawa, an Israeli Arab group involved in the campaign. For its part,
Mossawa was co-founded by NIF's Shatil organization.
According
Im Tirtzu's report, active NGO campaigning against Israeli Arab
national service and military service began in 2007. That year Baladna,
which receives funding from the NIF, spearheaded what has become a
continuous campaign to discourage Israeli Arabs from participating in
national service. Baladna claims that national service is just military
service in disguise.
In
its words, "National service is a direct arm of the Israeli Occupation
Army and of security frameworks that act and always have acted against
the Arab population and the Palestinian nation generally. And so, all
attempts to present the notion of civilian service as service for
society are founded in a deliberate distortion directed at society
generally and against the Arab sector in particular."
Following
this line of reasoning, in 2010 Omar Nasser, the head of the Araba
Local Council kicked two Arab women serving in national service out of
the local school. Defending his actions Nasser said, "I object in
principle to the national service project because I view it as a means
of paving the way for male and female volunteers to serve in the
military in the future, and I strenuously object to that."
As
the Im Tirtzu report indicates, the NGO-led campaign against Israeli
Arab military and national service has contributed to a situation in
which Israeli Arabs who support such service are subjected to physical
abuse, social ostracism, humiliation and harassment.
In
October 2012 the Forum for Military Service in the Christian Sector
held a conference in Upper Nazareth whose purpose was to encourage
Christians to serve in the IDF and national service. Three hundred
people participated in the conference. One of the heads of Mosawa wrote a
widely distributed article accusing the Christian leadership of
collaborating with the IDF. She suggested blacklisting the communal
leaders involved.
When
word of the conference got out, one priest who participated was banned
from the Church of the Annunciation. Another priest had his tires
slashed and a blood stained rag placed at his doorstep.
The
children who participated in the conference were singled out for abuse.
Their photos were disseminated on Facebook and in the Arab media. They
were humiliated by their teachers and classmates.
Soldiers
like Eleanor Joseph feel compelled to take off their uniforms before
they return home because when they have worn them home, they have faced
harassment. One female IDF soldier reportedly was severely beaten by her
neighbors.
The
general campaign against benefits for IDF veterans and those who served
in national service also involves a similar campaign to demoralize high
school students and encourage them not to serve. For instance, in 2008
Social TV, which is supported by the NIF and the US government,
broadcast a propaganda film targeting Jewish Israeli youth. Its aim was
to discourage them from serving in the IDF.
In
2009 22 self-proclaimed feminist organizations, many of which are
financed by the NIF, launched a campaign to support seven members of New
Profile under police investigation for launching websites instructing
young people how to dodge the draft — a felony offense.
But
the main thrust of the anti-military campaign has been to prevent and
undermine Knesset and government action to provide benefits for those
who serve — Jewish and non-Jewish alike. According to Im Tirtzu, the
campaign has intimidated Justice Ministry officials into obstructing
bills still before committee hearings.
For
instance, in May 2012, at a Knesset Economics Committee hearing on a
bill to provide housing benefits for IDF reservists, MK Miri Regev said
the bill was being held up because the Attorney General feared legal
challenges in the Supreme Court.
This
week the Ministerial Law Committee approved a bill that would allow IDF
soldiers to sue for libel those who wrongly accuse them of having
committed war crimes during their military service. Justice Minister
Tzipi Livni opposed the bill. Her opposition indicates that the bill may
face a similar fate as the Knesset's attempt to provide benefits to
reservists.
Military
and national service are vital national institutions. Integration of
the Israeli Arab community is a vital national interest. It is obscene
that a handful of well-funded radicals are able to undermine them both —
while paralyzing our representative institutions.
Im
Tirtzu's report concludes with a list of recommendations the Knesset
and government ministries should take to help those who serve the
country, and protect Israeli Arabs who serve and those who support them.
While they are all correct, and should be followed, they do not go far
enough. The time has come for the government and the Knesset to reign in
the twin forces — the NGO sector and the legal fraternity — which in
the name of "democracy" undermine our democracy.
Every
election we send our representatives to the Knesset. And every election
the vast majority of our elected representatives share our desire to
support those who serve in the IDF and national service without
reference to their religion, race, or gender. We want to support them
because they contribute to the general good of all of Israel.
But
due to a handful of NGOs who receive their funding from outside of
Israel from governments and groups that do not share our values and
interests; and due to the cooperation they receive from activist judges
and radical Justice Ministry attorneys, the will of the people is
stymied again and again and again.
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