Israeli Policy Towards the Druze Community (A Study of the Issue of Compulsory Military Service)

This research examines Israeli policy towards the Druze community as a case study, and explores how this policy was able to impose on Druze youths compulsory military service in the Israeli Army. The research clarifies how the leadership of the State of Israel managed to implement the policy of "divide and rule" (a policy inherited from the previous British Mandate ) in respect of the Druze community in its attempts to impose its control over the community and transform the conflict in Palestine from Palestinian versus Israeli conflict into an internal Palestinian-against-Palestinian conflict. The basic justification of the study is the belief that the Druze community is to be considered an integral part of the Palestinian people. The work examines the development and implications of Israeli policies in respect of the Druze community from the very beginning of the Zionist immigrations to Palestine through the recent time. The study aims at clarifying how Israeli policy regarding compulsory military service is applied specifically on the Druze community and deliberately not on Palestinian population as a whole, and further discusses the effects of compulsory military service in the Israeli army on young Druze, exploring the question of whether they consider service in the Israeli army as contributing positively or negatively to their daily life. Towards this end, and supported by case study methodology, the study reaches the following conclusions: Compulsory military service of the Druze youths hardly fetched positive privilege to the Druze community when compared with their peer "Jewish" soldiers. Israel's policy utilizes Druze's recruit in the army to fulfill its settler-colonial goals, regardless of such benefits as may or may not have incurred individually to Druze youths from their loyalty to Israel. The overall loss of lands to Zionist settlements (for "Jews" only) within the Druze's municipalities is enormous totaling some two- thirds of the total area that was under their jurisdiction prior to the establishment of Israeli state in 1948. In order to change the status quo of the situation of the Druze community consequent to subjecting the community to compulsory military service in Israel, the study recommends that Druze motivate popular movements - by way of peaceful resistance - in coordination with all Druze national committees aiming to ending compulsory military service of Druze youths, and with the view to demanding that the targeted educational curriculum towards the Druze be replaced with the curriculum that is delivered in all Arab schools in Israel. As detailed in the conclusions of the study, it is the view of the researcher, that these targeted curricula represent a major factor contributing and facilitating the process of recruiting Druze youths and integrating them into the Israeli army