Shukran Druze 2020

So this is late, by more than a week late. But LIFE is intruding on my life right now, so while this column is late, it is no less sincere or grateful. The reason it’s more than a week late is that #ShukranDruze2020 is a week that is meant to coincide with Parshat Yitro, Exodus 18:1-20:23. Yitro (Jethro) was the father in law of Moshe. The man responsible for the organization of courts and administering justice to the new nation of Israel. Jethro of Midian is considered an ancestor of Druze, who revere him as their spiritual founder and chief prophet.

According to Wikipedia,

The Druzites form a religious minority in Israel of more than 100,000, mostly residing in the north of the country. In 2004, there were 102,000 Druze living in the country. In 2010, the population of Israeli Druze citizens grew to over 125,000. At the end of 2018, there were 143,000. Most Israeli Druze identify ethnically as Arabs. Today, thousands of Israeli Druze belong to “Druze Zionist” movements.

The Druze are Arabic speaking, their culture is their own, but they are not considered muslims and have been persecuted (like everyone else) by the muslims. They broke ranks with the mainstream muslim decisions in 1948 and followed their belief that G-d gave the land of Israel to the Jews. Since then they have served along side the Jews in the state of Israel. You can read much more about the Druze here.

In yet another stunning display of failure to carry out apartheid successfully Israeli Druze are members of Israeli society, they vote, they serve in the IDF and much more. According to the web site The Druze Veterans Association

The Druze of Israel are a tiny yet fiercely loyal minority who serve with pride and dignity and have sacrificed 505 of their brethren in the defense of Israel – with over 1,500 wounded. Out of a community of just 120,000 those are huge, unfortunate, and very telling numbers.

In 2014, when Jews were being massacred during their prayers at a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood, it was an off-duty Druze police officer who ran in to stop the terrorist.

When Israel launched Operation Protective Edge in 2014 to curb terrorism from Gaza, a Druze commander led the ground battle.

In 2017, two Israeli police officers were killed while defending tourists on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Both officers were Druze.

Israel’s Presidential Military Liaison is Druze.

The commander responsible for cross-border goodwill with Gaza is Druze.

The Surgeon General of the Israel Defense Forces is Druze.

Many other senior leaders in Israel’s security and judiciary infrastructure, past and present, are Druze.

The first responder at the Har Nof Synagogue massacre was a Druze police officer, and he was attacked. More recently the two police officers murdered on the Temple Mount by pieceful falestinians were Druze. While the leadership of Israel paid condolence calls to their families and mourned their loss, crickets came from the arabs. As Michael Cohen of Druze Vets points out the Druze have a religious belief that they are not allowed to kill, or lie and have a similar ethical code. But if they have to fight, they will go first and they will go hard.

The Zelman Partisans has written about this

http://zelmanpartisans.com/?p=4371

http://zelmanpartisans.com/?p=371

http://zelmanpartisans.com/?p=5508

Shukran in Arabic means Todah, or Thank you. So what is this Shukran Druze 2020 about? It was, again sorry this is late, a week of thanking the Druze for all the do for the state and citizens of Israel. They are Arabs living peacefully in Israel, as members of the Israeli society helping keep the citizens of Israel safe. They are proof that Israel has a poor grasp of the concept of apartheid. #ShukranDruze2020 and #ApartheidFailIsrael

Shukran Druze 2020
Thank You
Todah Rabah
תודה רבה
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One thought on “Shukran Druze 2020”

  1. Sheila,
    I am sorry that like you, I only today made it here, to read this. I didn’t know about this subject at all. But it is important, certainly. And I lend my thanks to those Arab Jews, who are a kind of representation of the melting pot that America used to be, when people of various nations came together, under one flag, and became one people, supporting one nation.
    Sadly, America seems to be only a country that exists of land, where people come and bring their own nations and try to remake that nation, here, with no intent of assimilating into the melting pot that used to be America. In keeping their identity, they take from America what could have been so much more.

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