Druze deserve equality
Violent clashes between Druze residents, police a result of ongoing discrimination
The clashes in Peki’in between residents and police officers prove once again the Israeli establishment’s attitude to minorities living in Israel – an attitude that views any minority as an enemy of the State. This attitude isn’t new and we remember it well from the October 2000 clashes between police officers and the Arab minority that left 13 citizens dead, including one Jew.
The police become stressed out every time its members come in contact with a minority – this time it was members of the Druze sect who live in Israel, with many of its young people serving in the security forces alongside the same police officers that clashed with residents in Peki’in.
I do not justify lawbreakers, whoever they may be, and I do not accept excessive use of force by the police. I’m trying to understand why every contact between police and minority members in one village or another ends in violence. Is it because of the minority’s violent nature, or because of the arrogant attitude that makes police officers and their commanders view any minority as an enemy?
The Druze are members of a quiet sect that usually does not engage in violence and also views itself as part of Israeli society. Out of choice, most of its sons serve in the security forces, so there is no room to suspect intentions to undermine the foundations of the State. On the other end, and based on what I saw in previous cases, the police treat the Druze as a hostile minority that must be taught a lesson. Something similar happened several years ago in the Druze village of Ussafiya – then too it was over the placing of cellular antennas on roofs and the many cases of cancer in the community, attributed to radiation from the antennas.
Young Druze no longer naïve
I am not convinced that the violent clashes in Peki’in are the result of the placing of the antenna at the chicken coup. The residents’ conduct and fury stem from other reasons. For a long time now, various observers have been sounding the alarm over the State’s attitude to Druze communities. The establishment views them as a neglected minority that does not need to progress or develop, and closes deals with sheikhs and leaders as if this sect, which numbers more than 100,000 people, is a herd that follows them.
The State is unable to digest the fact that young Druze are no longer naïve, and demand the rights they deserve by law - and not as a favor from one government ministry or another. The clashes in Peki’in are the harbinger to what could happen in other Druze communities as a result of neglect and discrimination – whether it is in matters of land and areas of jurisdiction or in matters of local authority budgets and community development.
The Druze villages are sitting on a powder keg that may explode in the face of our national leaders, who make do with declarations and don’t do a thing to integrate the loyal Druze sect into government institutions. The expropriation of land at Druze communities, for example, for the purpose of developing Jewish communities could lead to a conflagration. And by the way, one of the reasons for the resistance of Arab Israelis to national service is the inequality faced by Druze soldiers and the ongoing discrimination.
I do not accept violence of any kind, and I demand that the State enforce the law everywhere, in the same manner and without resorting to excessive force. However, I do not recall the use of force when cellular antennas were torched in the Town of Nesher, near Haifa, or in Petach Tikva, or in Bat Yam, or in other areas.
