‘Sons of the New Testament’ movement is latest expression of growing desire among country’s Christians to assert their Israeli identity
By Lazar Berman and Elhanan Miller
Christian Arab
citizens of Israel are forming a new political party that calls for Arab
enlistment into the IDF. The party’s Hebrew name — B’nei Brit Hahadasha — means “Sons of the New Testament,” although the word “allies” is hidden in the title as well.
The effort is part of a growing assertiveness on the part
of Christian Arabs in the wake of the Arab Spring, as they increasingly
sound calls for an identity distinct from Israel’s broader Arab
society, which is around 90% Muslim.
Today, Shilyan’s nephew is a major in a combat unit.
When it was his son’s turn to join the IDF, Shilyan started a local Christian enlistment forum with the help of local priests. One of the clergymen who joined up with the Forum for Drafting the Christian Community was Father Gabriel Naddaf, a Greek Orthodox priest from Yafia who has faced threats for his support of Christian enlistment.
For his backing of Christian recruitment, Naddaf was banned from entering Nazareth’s Church of the Annunciation, and was threatened with being fired from his position in Yafia. The tires of his car were punctured and a rag with bloodstains was laid at his doorstep.
“If I was in America, I wouldn’t be American?” Shilyan said to Israel Hayom. “At least in Israel, everyone who stayed was given the right to become a citizen and integrate into society. But the first demand of Israel, and I’m for it — you need to understand it — is that it is the land of the Jewish people.”
According to Maariv, Shilyan’s efforts have begun to bear fruit: 90 high school graduates have joined the IDF in recent months, a number that may seem like a drop in the bucket considering the total number of 130,000 Arabic-speaking Christians in Israel, but it is a threefold increase compared to 2010. Small as it is, the number was sufficient to enrage Muslim community leaders and politicians, like Balad MKs Hanin Zoabi and Bassel Ghattas.
Despite the harsh opposition, Arab volunteerism is on the rise, and is not limited to the Christian population. New data released by Israel’s Administration for National-Civic Service indicates a rise of 76% in Arab youth volunteering for civil service since September 2001. Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett recently celebrated the 3,000th Arab volunteer, almost double the number of volunteers in 2012 (1,700).
Soon after its creation, the forum paired with right-leaning Israeli NGO Im Tirtzu, which promotes a no-nonsense form of Zionism on Israeli campuses, and began actively recruiting Christian youths in their hometowns.
The forum has been coordinating with military authorities and arranging meetings with Israeli MKs from the center and right including Elazar Stern (Hatnua), Boaz Toporovsky (Yesh Atid), Miri Regev (Likud), and Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home). The IDF has recently made Christian conscription easier at its Tiberias office, and a special adviser was appointed by the Defense Ministry to deal exclusively with Christians.
In the past, the IDF usually guided Christians into the Bedouin Reconnaissance Battalion, where they are found themselves a tiny minority among Muslim Bedouin and urban Arab soldiers. That is likely to change.
The violence against Middle Eastern Christians in the wake of the Arab Spring has likely pushed Israel’s Christians to more publicly express opinions considered unacceptable in Arab society. Coptic Christians in Egypt have faced attacks on churches and murders of priests since Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011. In Syria, Orthodox and Catholic churches have been kidnapped, and Islamist rebels declare Sharia law on Christian villages that fall under their control. “People see what’s happening now in Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria,” said Shilyan. “They understand where we’re living.”
A similar process has taken place among Druze on the Golan Heights. According to government figures, 2012 showed a sharp several-hundredfold increase in requests by young Golan Druze for Israeli citizenship, as they come to the understanding that Israel offers them a future much brighter and safer than neighboring states.
According to its Facebook page, the party’s
platform includes full integration of Christians in all fields, peace
with a democratic Palestinian state and all of Israel’s neighbors,
increased tourism and trade, and the return of Israelis who have left
the country.
Israel Hayom reported Tuesday that the new movement is led by Bishara Shilyan, a 58-year-old sea captain from the mixed Christian-Muslim city of Nazareth. Shilyan said the idea came to him when he saw how much trouble his nephew ran into when he tried to enlist in the army.Today, Shilyan’s nephew is a major in a combat unit.
When it was his son’s turn to join the IDF, Shilyan started a local Christian enlistment forum with the help of local priests. One of the clergymen who joined up with the Forum for Drafting the Christian Community was Father Gabriel Naddaf, a Greek Orthodox priest from Yafia who has faced threats for his support of Christian enlistment.
For his backing of Christian recruitment, Naddaf was banned from entering Nazareth’s Church of the Annunciation, and was threatened with being fired from his position in Yafia. The tires of his car were punctured and a rag with bloodstains was laid at his doorstep.
“If I was in America, I wouldn’t be American?” Shilyan said to Israel Hayom. “At least in Israel, everyone who stayed was given the right to become a citizen and integrate into society. But the first demand of Israel, and I’m for it — you need to understand it — is that it is the land of the Jewish people.”
According to Maariv, Shilyan’s efforts have begun to bear fruit: 90 high school graduates have joined the IDF in recent months, a number that may seem like a drop in the bucket considering the total number of 130,000 Arabic-speaking Christians in Israel, but it is a threefold increase compared to 2010. Small as it is, the number was sufficient to enrage Muslim community leaders and politicians, like Balad MKs Hanin Zoabi and Bassel Ghattas.
Despite the harsh opposition, Arab volunteerism is on the rise, and is not limited to the Christian population. New data released by Israel’s Administration for National-Civic Service indicates a rise of 76% in Arab youth volunteering for civil service since September 2001. Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett recently celebrated the 3,000th Arab volunteer, almost double the number of volunteers in 2012 (1,700).
Soon after its creation, the forum paired with right-leaning Israeli NGO Im Tirtzu, which promotes a no-nonsense form of Zionism on Israeli campuses, and began actively recruiting Christian youths in their hometowns.
The forum has been coordinating with military authorities and arranging meetings with Israeli MKs from the center and right including Elazar Stern (Hatnua), Boaz Toporovsky (Yesh Atid), Miri Regev (Likud), and Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home). The IDF has recently made Christian conscription easier at its Tiberias office, and a special adviser was appointed by the Defense Ministry to deal exclusively with Christians.
In the past, the IDF usually guided Christians into the Bedouin Reconnaissance Battalion, where they are found themselves a tiny minority among Muslim Bedouin and urban Arab soldiers. That is likely to change.
The violence against Middle Eastern Christians in the wake of the Arab Spring has likely pushed Israel’s Christians to more publicly express opinions considered unacceptable in Arab society. Coptic Christians in Egypt have faced attacks on churches and murders of priests since Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011. In Syria, Orthodox and Catholic churches have been kidnapped, and Islamist rebels declare Sharia law on Christian villages that fall under their control. “People see what’s happening now in Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria,” said Shilyan. “They understand where we’re living.”
A similar process has taken place among Druze on the Golan Heights. According to government figures, 2012 showed a sharp several-hundredfold increase in requests by young Golan Druze for Israeli citizenship, as they come to the understanding that Israel offers them a future much brighter and safer than neighboring states.
----
New Christian Arab party seeks to change face of Israeli society
"The New Alliance" supports national service, including in
the military, and recognizes Israel as the home of the Jewish people • "We are
completely Israeli, and then comes religion," says party founder Bashara Shlayan
of Nazareth.
Dror Eydar | Tuesday July 9, 2013
The events in the Middle East have unleashed deep
sociological and ideological processes, of which we are only seeing the
beginning. It is not only political Islam in the eye of the media storm.
Throughout the various Arab countries in the region, the bruised and battered
Christian community is raising its voice. Israel appears to be the only country
in the region whose Christian community does not have a negative emigration
ratio as its members flee West in pursuit of a more promising life.
Recent newspaper headlines involve Christian Israelis who
are setting themselves apart from their Muslim counterparts, disproving the
traditional perception of Israel's Arab population as homogenous. They want to
join the Israel Defense Forces.
Against the backdrop of hysteria expressed by Arab MKs who
object to national service of any kind, but particularly in the army, the
comments emanating from Israel's Christian Arab community sound like a cultural
and social declaration of independence.
Now comes the next phase in the independence process:
forming a political party. As of today, the Arab Christian party will be named
Habrit Hahadashah (The New Alliance -- the word "brit," which also means
covenant, references the New Testament).
This is a historic turning point with profound and
far-reaching consequences for Israeli society. If the party is successful, it
will provide an alternative for that sector of Israel's Arab population that
seeks full partnership in Israeli society, and which sees a Jewish democratic
Israel as its home.
Israel Hayom sat down with the leader of the initiative,
professional ship captain Bashara Shlayan (58) from Nazareth.
"The entire thing started from the fact that I wanted to
get my nephew into the army and there were difficulties, they really didn't want
him to integrate. Today he is a major in a combat unit," Shlayan says.
"When I wanted my son to join the army we decided to
create a forum for Christian enlistment. We also invited priests from the church
to a conference we held in Nazareth Illit. One of them is the Church patriarch,
Father Gabriel Nadaf [who has drawn the ire of Arab MKs recently for encouraging Christian Arab youth to join the IDF], who
preferred [our way] and said we were right."
Shlayan is proud that the forum was able to get a
representative from the community assigned to work at the IDF's enlistment
offices.
"We saw that we needed to create a political party," he
says. "There were articles about us published in the Arab newspapers and it
sparked interest throughout the region that there is an Arab Christian in Israel
who recognizes the land of Israel as belonging to the Jews."
How do you define yourselves?
"Firstly we are completely Israeli, and then comes
religion."
Shlayan is not fooling himself. In fact, he gives the
impression that he was pushed into this position for lack of an alternative. He
says he has also been met with skepticism that anything can actually be changed.
"People see what is happening now in Lebanon, Egypt and
Syria. They understand where we are living. I tell them, 'For 65 years we have
given to the Arab communist parties; 65 years and they have done nothing!' Give
me three years, I will manage and solve their problems."
They haven't done anything?
"Look at what the Arab parties have done. Just talking
nonsense about nothing but communism; [MK Dov] Khenin and [MK Mohammad] Barakeh
(Hadash), what have they done for us? They want us to disappear and are not
acting according to the integrity of their country's citizens."
What integrity?
"The integrity is very simple. A person belongs to his
country. This is the integrity. You need to be like any citizen. If you were in
America, you wouldn't be an American? At least in Israel, those who stayed here
have been given the right to be a citizen and to integrate. But Israel's first
demand, which I support -- and which needs to be understood -- is that Israel is
the home of the Jewish people."
What is your opinion about the automatic position taken by
the Arab parties against Israel and in support of the Palestinians?
"It's stupidity. You can be against something pertaining to a
certain matter, but the state does a lot of things, so be a partner! Don't
always be against. They think being against Israel is Arab nationalism, that it
is the manly thing. But if you oppose this way of thinking, you are a traitor.
This is what needs to be changed. It's stupidity. So I demand that we, the
Christians, be recognized as loyal citizens of the state."
***
Date: Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 1:44 PM
Subject: Israeli Christian Loves Israel, Tells Arab MK to Mind her own Business -"We speak Arabic, we are not 'Palestinians' and we do not care for them...we are Israeli Christians covered in blue and white in our hearts and souls
Subject: Israeli Christian Loves Israel, Tells Arab MK to Mind her own Business -"We speak Arabic, we are not 'Palestinians' and we do not care for them...we are Israeli Christians covered in blue and white in our hearts and souls
Rajada Jaraisi is a
young Christian woman from Nazareth who’s about to enlist in the
IDF..she is telling anti-Israel MK Hanin Zoabi not to speak for her nor
for other Christian youths
Israeli Christian Loves Israel, Tells Arab MK to Mind her own Business
Simply stated, Rejada is asking MK Zoabi not to speak for her nor for other Christian youths.
By: Yori Yanover
Published: July 8th, 2013
Rajada Jaraisi is a young
Christian woman from Nazareth who’s about to enlist in the IDF. As
member of the Christian Community Forum, supports her friends to also
enlist in the army. Recently there has been quite a storm inside the
non-Jewish population of Israel, when it was discovered that a priest
named Father Gabriel and a group known as the Christian Officers Forum
are encouraging their community youths to serve in the IDF or join the
national Service, Rajada decided to write MK Hanin Zoabi, possibly the most fervently anti-Zionist Member of Knesset, and share her ideas on this matter.
We thank Israeli reporter Yishai Friedman for his recently reported the story.
Rejada’s letter has the entire story of the changes many your Christians living in Israel have been undergoing. It may also throw some light on the great fear of the anti-Israeli MKs of this new spirit among these youths, of going hand-in-hand with Israeli society and the Jewish people, at the expense of their ties with a growing portion of the Arab (meaning Muslim) society.
Simply stated, Rejada is asking MK Zoabi not to speak for her nor for other Christian youths.
“Shalom, MK Hanin Zoabi.
“I am an Arabic speaking Christian, but I am not an Arab. I ask, with all due respect, that you not say in the name of the Christians that ‘we are Palestinians.’ Hear me, we are not Palestinians and we don’t care about them. We are Israeli Christians, covered in blue and white in our hearts and souls.
“If you object to the Christians enlisting in the IDF, please permit me to answer you that neither you, nor [MK Basel] Ghattas will build our future here and give us the same rights as our state, the State of Israel, is giving us.
“Another thing, if you know how to object to the enlistment of Christians, I’d like to see you also objecting to the Muslim Bedouin who serve in the IDF, not just against the Christians. We love everybody, the Christians and the Arabs, but only those who have a blue ID card. We simply love blue and white. And we as Christians will enlist in the IDF and will serve the state.”
Rajada Jaraisi’s letter caused quite a stir within the non-Jewish community in Israel, but passed almost unnoticed in the local major media. Arabic media rushed to interview the young woman who dared stand up to MK Zoabi, possibly the most popular MK in the left. Rajada responded calmly, as she had done in her letter, repeating that she was simply on the side of the State of Israel.
This is Rajada’s Facebook page. It’s all in Hebrew, but I know you’ll figure it out…
We thank Israeli reporter Yishai Friedman for his recently reported the story.
Rejada’s letter has the entire story of the changes many your Christians living in Israel have been undergoing. It may also throw some light on the great fear of the anti-Israeli MKs of this new spirit among these youths, of going hand-in-hand with Israeli society and the Jewish people, at the expense of their ties with a growing portion of the Arab (meaning Muslim) society.
Simply stated, Rejada is asking MK Zoabi not to speak for her nor for other Christian youths.
“Shalom, MK Hanin Zoabi.
“I am an Arabic speaking Christian, but I am not an Arab. I ask, with all due respect, that you not say in the name of the Christians that ‘we are Palestinians.’ Hear me, we are not Palestinians and we don’t care about them. We are Israeli Christians, covered in blue and white in our hearts and souls.
“If you object to the Christians enlisting in the IDF, please permit me to answer you that neither you, nor [MK Basel] Ghattas will build our future here and give us the same rights as our state, the State of Israel, is giving us.
“Another thing, if you know how to object to the enlistment of Christians, I’d like to see you also objecting to the Muslim Bedouin who serve in the IDF, not just against the Christians. We love everybody, the Christians and the Arabs, but only those who have a blue ID card. We simply love blue and white. And we as Christians will enlist in the IDF and will serve the state.”
Rajada Jaraisi’s letter caused quite a stir within the non-Jewish community in Israel, but passed almost unnoticed in the local major media. Arabic media rushed to interview the young woman who dared stand up to MK Zoabi, possibly the most popular MK in the left. Rajada responded calmly, as she had done in her letter, repeating that she was simply on the side of the State of Israel.
This is Rajada’s Facebook page. It’s all in Hebrew, but I know you’ll figure it out…
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