Bereaved Druze families to the ‘Post’: They stabbed us in the back

“It’s like they stabbed us in the back” was a sentence which was repeated over and over on Thursday when The Jerusalem Post visited Druze villages in Israel’s Galilee.

It was a sentiment repeated by those who fought shoulder to shoulder with Israeli Jews and who had lost loved ones protecting the State of Israel, a “blood alliance” which many now question because of the Nation State law passed by the Knesset.

Over 85% of Druze voluntarily serve in the IDF with a large majority in combat positions or in special units and border police, with many reaching senior positions in the military and police.

In the northern village of Hurfeish lie the graves of 35 Druze soldiers who fell protecting the State of Israel. The most recent: Master Sgt. Kamil Shnaan who was killed by Israeli-Arab terrorists who opened fire on him and his partner Master Sgt. Haiel Sitawe on the Temple Mount Complex in Jerusalem last year.

Another one belongs to Col. Nabi Merey, the brother of local council head Mofad Merey, himself a Colonel in reserves.

Col.Nabi Merey joined the IDF and fought in the Sinai during the Yom Kippur War and later the Deputy Commander of the elite Givati Brigade, the Arava Battalion and then Deputy Commander of Gaza Division.  In 1996 at the age of 42 he was killed by a Hamas sniper while trying to save his soldiers during an attack in the Gaza Strip.

“We are Israelis. There is no difference between us. I am Israeli Druze just like you are a Jewish Israeli,” said Col.(res.) Mofad Merey. But “this law bothers me. I was raised to serve my country and that is how I raised my sons and community.”

Merey told The Post that following the passing of the Nation State law there were many questions by soldiers and officers in the village.

“Everyone is asking about the law, there is a really negative feeling,” he said in his office answering his telephone which did not stop ringing.

Since the passing of the law, three Druze officers have so far stated their intention to stop serving in Israel’s military in protest of the controversial law, including one Hurfeish resident, 23-year-old Shady Zidan, an IDF officer with the rank of deputy commander in a combat battalion.

Merey stressed, they should “keep the army out of this game. We will deal with it and they need to serve and protect the country. We will make this right for them.”

For Mudi Saad (Likud) the Nation State law is just one issue on the tip of the iceberg of acute problems the Druze community faces.

“Netanyahu didn’t expect this to happen,” Saad said referring to the major blacklash against the law. “We know it’s the Jewish State and that’s ok. But this law takes away our rights and takes away the equality we have. We serve in senior positions so why can’t we be equal in civilian life? Whoever gives to the country should get something back from the State.”

“This law needs to be fixed so we aren’t second class citizens,” he continued, adding that perhaps this “could be a trigger for better things in the future.”

Mourad Saif from northern Israeli town of Yanuh-Jat, lost his uncle fighting with the IDF during the 1982 Lebanon War and his brother four years ago in a terror attack on a synagogue in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof in 2014.

“Hero” was the word used to describe 30 year-old police officer Zidan Saif who the first to respond and was shot in the head during a gunfight with terrorists. Saif left behind a 21-year-old wife and a four-month-old daughter, along with his parents and five brothers including Mourad.

“When my brother died, everyone loved us. They (the state) promised us so much, but now four years later everyone forgot about us. There is no respect.”

“We fought and died and for this land and this is what we get?” Mourad told The Post in his home.  We sat in his living room across from a large picture of his brother as his one-year old daughter crawled along the floor laughing.

“Many families who lost loved ones…they threw us in the garbage. I don’t know what I would tell my sons and daughters about this.”

Calling the law “a total tragedy,”  Mourad told The Post that he was for a Jewish State but against a law which he called undemocratic.

Mourad, the first Druze to serve in Sayaret Maglan-the IDF’s elite commando unit whose mission is to operate deep in enemy territory- said that he has heard many youth in his village question whether they should serve in the IDF and that several days ago the pre-military meetings held before every draft has been cancelled.

“I’m hearing a lot of people who say it’s better to go to jail than to serve,” he said, adding that the majority of Druze are warriors “who can leave home and never come back. Many are asking why should I fight if I get nothing in return? I could be like most Jewish Israelis and be a jobnik and go home at the end of the day.”

Nevertheless if there were to be a war tomorrow, “even with this law I’d be the first to the frontlines. It’s not for the country, it’s for my land and my family,” Mourad said.

But for Maj.(res.) Ziad Faresh, the deputy council head of Hurfiesh, the choice to pick up arms to defend this country is something that he is not sure about anymore.

“It’s a bad, sick feeling…a feeling that your time is done. The soldiers feel as if they have been abandoned,” he told the Post. “This law adds fuel to the flames of the already negative feelings that the Druze community had.”

“We were born here. We are Israeli citizens in every way and we are only asking to be treated as equals! The question and what bothers us, is that for a Jew who doesn’t serve and gets full rights and we don’t…why is that? We and the Jews are the same but this is like stabbing us in the back.”

On Saturday evening thousands are expected to attend a rally in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square support of the Druze community. Dozens of buses will bring hundreds from Druze villages across northern Israel -including those visited by the Post– and thousands of Israelis are expected to join them.

This support by the everyday Israeli is not lost on the Druze.

“We are very thankful for the support we are getting,” Faresh said. “The more people who come the louder they will hear us and the more strength we will have.”