Meet Muslim, Arab and Bedouin soldiers of Israel’s Army

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are considered the finest in the world. While military service is compulsory for Israeli Jews – both men and women – this is not the case for Muslims, Arabs and Bedouins. And yet, hundreds of these minorities volunteer to serve in the armed forces every year – and are signing up in greater numbers. On 7 October, as Hamas launched a brutal attack on Israel, an Arab Bedouin IDF commander rushed to the rescue. As per Times Now, Ashraf, a resident of Rahat who served in the Gaza tracking unit, led his team in a battle against the terrorists. Ashraf and his team successfully repelled several Hamas terrorists from their base and then neutralised them. The video was posted by Yoseph Haddad, the CEO of ‘Together Arabs For Each Other’ group.

Ashraf, the commander of the tracker unit of the Gaza Division and a resident of Rahat, has been fighting fiercely for Israel for years.
He was critically wounded in Operation Pillar of Heaven but recovered and returned to service. On October 7, when many terrorists tried to… pic.twitter.com/cj0hN0cvP2

— יוסף חדאד - Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) October 20, 2023

While Ashraf was injured in Operation Pillar of Heaven, he has since recovered and returned to service. Let’s take a look at how Arab and Bedouin are serving in Israel’s army: By the numbers First, let’s briefly examine some statistics. According to Jerusalem Post, 606 Arab Muslims joined the IDF in 2020. That’s up from 489 in 2019 and 436 in 2018 – over half of whom were conscripted into combat units. That’s a sea change from 2013 when less than 10 Arab Israelis would seek to join the military every year, as per NBC. Meanwhile, the number of Muslims in the military who chose to leave service early in 2020 dropped by seven per cent. That number was at 30 per cent in 2019.

Those who join say they are proud to serve.

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As per The Telegraph, Fadel Faour, the first from his Muslim village to enlist in the Israeli Army, said he was labelled a traitor by his friends and relatives. [caption id=“attachment_13343902” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] In 2020, 606 Arab Muslims joined the IDF. Representational image courtesy IDF website[/caption] Faour, who is now serving in the war against Hamas, said he initially joined to leave behind the poverty and crime in his village. But now it has become a calling. “In the last Lebanon war, rockets were fired and also hit the Arabs in Nazareth and the nearby villages. We live here together. Protecting the country from the terrorists on our borders is important for all of us, Muslims, Jews, all of us here. The army needs us and we need the army, so I feel that it is my duty to enlist and protect everyone, Jews or Arabs.” “As a Muslim who is the only soldier in your village, everyone asks why I enlisted. They would argue that I used to be religious, I wanted to be a sheikh [religious leader], and in the end I’m going to the army,” he said. “But as both Israelis and Palestinians, we need to eradicate terror, we need to protect our civilians.” Faour told the newspaper others have followed in his footsteps – and that he feels proud in the uniform. “It wasn’t easy, but I had a clear idea of why I was doing it and, in time, people have mostly come to accept it. I feel a sense of pride wearing this uniform and have been accepted into Israeli society much more than I ever could have without it.” “It took time for us to get to know each other but now we are blood brothers,” he says of his fellow soldiers including Jews, Christians and Druze. “In the end we eat from the same plates, and sleep in the same rooms,” he said. “This was the best decision I made for my future." Joining the IDF is also a pathway for bigger and better things. “After the service this will give me many more opportunities in life whether I want to go to university, to be in hi-tech, a doctor, totally the opposite of everyone in my village,” added Faour. Bedouins and Israel The Bedouins and Israel have a special relationship from the state’s founding.

As per OptimizeIAS, the Bedouins are a nomadic Muslim Arab people.

They now live in southern Israel’s Negev desert. Prior to that, they would roam with their families and their livestock between Saudi Arabia and the Sinai. Many Bedouins helped the early Jewish Israeli settlers. They even provided intelligence support during the Arab-Israeli war after the state’s founding. Israel in the 1950s acknowledged several Bedouin as citizens and established settlements for them. There are currently around 210,000 Bedouins in Israel. Over the years, Bedouins have continued to serve the IDF as scouts. In 2003, Israel created its first Bedouin search and rescue units. [caption id=“attachment_13343922” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Bedouins have long had a special relationship with Israel. Representational image courtesy: IDF website[/caption] The numbers of Bedouins joining the IDF have increased in recent years. As per Indian Express, 600 Bedouins joined the Israeli Force in 2021. The IDF in a 2014 Facebook post estimated that around “450 Bedouin men volunteer to serve in the IDF each year”. The Bedouin reconnaissance unit has similarly seen its numbers double from 84 in 2018 to 171 in 2020. In 2017, the unit drafted just 45 people. Of Israel’s Bedouin soldiers, 75 per cent are from the North. Many Bedouins choose to join Israel’s Bedouin Reconnaissance Battalion near Kerem Shalom, as per Jerusalem Post. The battalion is charged with defending the area near the place where the borders of Israeli, Egypt and Gaza meet and defend nearby settlements. While it is known as the Bedouin Reconnaissance Battalion, around 40 per cent of it comprises non-Bedouin Muslim Arabs, Christians and Circassians. Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel David Ron told the newspaper he takes time to reach out to the Arab community and youth. “I see it as a mission – to give my soldiers tools that will help them in the future,” he said. “Yes, on the one hand, my battalion is more of a ‘comfort zone’ for them: They speak Arabic here and hang around with people who are more like them. But on the other hand, we are also a home for those who tried to join other units in the IDF, but it didn’t work out. So instead of leaving completely, they can come here.” Major Ahmed Khojirat, a Bedouin from northern Israel, told The Telegraph he thinks all citizens of his country should serve.

Khojirat, who joined the IDF in 2014,said, “We are all united in the goal of protecting our country from terror.”

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“Our commander is Jewish, the deputy commander is Bedouin, our office staff is Jewish, I have Christian soldiers, I am Muslim, and we have some Circassians and Druze. I wish Israeli society looked more like this too with us all working together. I think there is still a long way to go in terms of integrating these minority populations into Israeli society, but in the army we do it in a much more advanced way,” he explained. [caption id=“attachment_13343932” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Recruiters say the numbers are increasing. Representational image courtesy: IDF website[/caption] Major Naif Nujeidat, a recruiter, told the Jerusalem Post the numbers are going up. “We are using a variety of tools to encourage youth to join the IDF,” he said. “We have pre-military programs that are meant to give the youth an idea about what they are expected to face. “Recently we launched an ‘ambassadors program,’ in which people with academic degrees, teachers, educators, and local-authorities officials join the IDF and go through a two-week program. After that, they have the tools to encourage recruitments in their communities,” he said.  With inputs from agencies