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Ali Iksal
Are you willing to serve in the army or do National Service?
I would do National Service
But if it was manditory, I would serve in the army too
Do you think it...
I don't have to so I don't
What is positive and what is negative about that?
Positive, you feel you are an Israeli citizen
you support and protect your country
Negative is that you go to battle with your grandparents
and your parents
Do you mean the internal argument with your family or you fight against your own nation?
No, you don't understand me
On the one hand, I help and protect my country, proctect my parents
but I also have relatives there that I would be fighting
Where do your relatives live?
In the West Bank
we were one nation and we were split
Baayan Kfar Mazra
Are you willing to serve in the army or do National Service?
I did it. Two years of National Service
What did you do?
I helped kids at the school in my village
a year in the kindergarden and a year in the primary school
I learned alot from the kids
Jonathan Haifa
I did two years of National Service
I was at Rambam hospital in Haifa
I did administrative work with personel
I was also responsible for taking in more than 70 new people to serve there
Of the 70, 30 were Arabs who served at the hospital
I was there to help them with any issues
I was interviewed alot by the Arab and Aramaic media to get more to volunteer in National Service
It is a positive thing it helps develop your career
it is a way in to education and to skills development
I can tell you that serving helped me develop socially
to meet other people and see work places
which gives you one or two years experience
which is really positive
Plus you get a student grant at the end of your service
Samir Ramle
In your opinion, should Arabs have to serve in the army ...
No
National Service yes
Why not the army?
My brother may be in the West Bank
My cousin....
The kids don't want to serve
In this area, we disagree
The Druze don't think like that
The Druze say
I live here. I have to protect the country.
I don't care that my brother is on the other side If I have to kill him, I will kill him for my country
That's the Druze
There are also the Catholic Christian (Arabs) in Nazareth
if they want to serve in the army, they do
They can volunteer in the army
Christians can
I know a (Christian Arab) guy here in Ramle who works for the army
I want to say... What's your name?
The political levels in Israel are not interested to have Muslims serve in the army
for security reasons
They don't trust them, don't trust them
But there are many Muslim Bedouins
who serve, almost every Bedouin serves in the IDF
and they get to high ranks, even if I am not mistaken, to Brigadier General
Bedouin
I met a woman whose son is in the Golani Brigade (one of the highest combat brigades)
who is Muslim and not Bedouin, in the north
He is a Muslim Palestinian
We are all Palestinians
He defines himself, if I understood correctly
Muslim, Zionist, Israeli
Why not?
Good for him
Here we have Christians, who say they are Christians
Christian Israelis
and that they are not Arabs
What is being an Arab? an overall definition
religion is religion and it is something seperate
In the north, they serve in the army, serve in the police
In 1948, they took 7000 Arabs between ages 16 to 45
They put them in prison
For how long?
For 9 months
They told them that anyone who wants to work in Tel Aviv to meet them
bring their ID cards and get on the trucks
all the young people went to the road and got on the trucks
and they took them to prison
where the Assaf Harofeh hospital is now was a British camp, they locked them there
Why did they lock them up?
The Israeli army that conquered Ramle and Lod
were afraid that young people would go against the Israeli army
So they locked them up there
After a week or two, people didn't know where their children went
Didn't they tell the families?
The elders all went to the government ministry buildings
It's the church bells It's noon now
It's electronic now
Once it was rung by hand
Yes, a month ago they replaced it at the church here with electric bells
You became lazy
They told them the men were in jail
After about a month, month and a half
They brought the Christians to pray at the churches on Sunday
On Fridays, they brought the Muslims to the mosque
From jail? Yes
They would bring them on trucks
They had triangles on their coats so you could see they were prisoners
After the army decided to release them
they said that anyone who wants to work for the army can
Why? The Christian and Muslim Arabs here worked alot with the British when they were here
All kinds of professions- electricians, metal workers, carpenters, machine workers
skilled people
They worked at the airport with the British
about a thousand guys working
at Bet Dagan where the police station is
That's where they worked for the army
My brother in law worked for the army 45 years
my olderst sister's husband was a tank mechanic
If God forbid, there was a war he stayed there to work
Why would prisoners agree to work for them? I personally would be so angry
But they said, sure, we will work for you
They worked and made money
So they did it for the money?
People have to eat, no?
Tamara Nazereth
Wahid Tira
Would you serve in the army or do National Service?
National Service
Lynn Jaffa
If you do the army, you are being untrue to your values
National Service you are serving what you believe
Good for you
Both are important
Patrick Jaffa
Why is army service important?
Because you are protecting the state of Israel
If we have no soldiers, we have no one to proctect us
Also National Service is good
All are good
Who are they protecting against?
Against attacks from our enemies
Who are these enemies?
You want names? Yes
all sorts
Gaza and Palestinians and Hamas
in the end, we are all human
Amira Jaffa
Nur Jaffa
Do you think everyone has to serve in the army or do National Service?
Abu Jalil Jaffa
I have nothing to answer on the issue I have nothing against you or anyone else
Muhammad Sakhnin
For sure, no
Why?
I will split the answer into two parts
The first why no to the army and the second why not National Service
I won't do the army because the army conquers my nation
and I cannot be a part of that
in general
but I have another personal reason
I define myself as a pacifist I don't believe in armies
Even if I was in a different country I wouldn't join the army
But the main reason I won't serve specifically in the Israeli army
because it conquered the Palestinian nation
and National Service?
National Service. I am against making rights conditional on obligations
the trend, the view of the country
that they want to condition our rights in the Arab sectors on National Service
I think we need to be against that
Also, that view is not in coordination with the Arab leadership
it was discussed by government and army people only
There is a proposal from the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee
to have the National Service be managed by the local municipalities
so it is run by the elected (Arab) leaders
I think that is more suitable and better
But in general, I am against forced service
It needs to be a choice
But if the majority of Jews do it and they are 80% of the country...
I don't think the Jews need to do it either
I really believe that no one should be forced to serve in the army or National Service
National Service is, in my view, a cheap labour force
The problem in the Arab sector is a lack of options in the job force
There is a very high unemployment rate (in the Arab sector)
So instead of those 1000 serving for 800 shekels a month
Place people who will work for a full wage
That way you lessen unemployment
and you give people the means to live with respect