Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH – An Arab Druze man Saturday sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak telling them that he refuses to enlist in the Israeli army which is “suppressing my Palestinian people, and fighting my Arab brothers.” Omar Zahreddine Sa'ad from the Maghar village in the Galilee area said in his letter: “I received an order to come to the army enlisting offices on 31.10.2012 in order to make checking according to the obligatory enlisting law for the Druze congregation, and here is my answer to your demand. I refuse to come for checking because I do not accept the law of the obligatory army enlist that is opposed on my Druze congregation.” “I refuse that because I am pacifist, and I hate any kind of violence, and I believe that the army institute is the top of physical and psychological violence, and since I received your order for making the checking procedures my life changed completely. I became very nervous and my thoughts were dispersed. I remembered thousands of hard images, and I could not imagine myself wearing the military uniform and participating in suppressing my Palestinian people, and fighting my Arab brothers,” he wrote. Sa'ad said that he rejects enlisting to the Israeli army or to any other army “because of national and moral reasons.” “I hate oppression, and I reject occupation. I hate prejudice and restricting freedom,” he said. “I hate (those) who arrest children, elders and women,” he wrote in his letter to Netanyahu and Barak. The Arab Druze young man added that “I am a musician and I play viola. I played in many places and I have many musician friends from Ramallah, Jericho, Jerusalem, Hebron, Nablus, Jenin, Shafa'amr, Eilaboun, Rome, Athens, Beirut, Damascus, Oslo, and many other places, and we all play for freedom, humanity and peace. Our weapon is music, and it will not be any other kind of weapon.” “I belong to a congregation that was oppressed by an unjust law, so how can we fight against our relatives in Palestine, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon? How can I work as a soldier in Qalandyah checkpoint, or in any other occupation checkpoint, and I am who experienced the oppression of checkpoints?” he questioned. “How can I prevent the Ramallah People from visiting Jerusalem? How can I guard the apartheid wall? How can I be a jailer for my people, while I know that most of the prisoners are captives and freedom and rights seekers?” “I play for joy, freedom, and for just peace that is based on stopping settlements and withdrawal of the Israeli occupation from Palestine, and establishing the independent Palestine and Jerusalem will be its capital, and releasing all the prisoners, and the return of all the expelled refugees back to their homeland,” Sa'ad added. “Many of our young people served under the obligatory law of enlisting, and what did we get in the end? Discrimination in all the fields. Our villages are the poorest in the region, our lands were confiscated, and we got no structural maps, and no industrial zones,” he explained. Sa'ad said in his letter that university graduates are the less in Galilee area, adding that they suffer from a lot of unemployment. “This law of obligatory enlisting has isolated us from our Arab world,” he said. “This year I intend to continue my secondary school studies, and I wish to continue my academic studies.” “I am sure that you will try to put obstacles in front of my human ambitions, but I say it in a loud voice: I am Omar Zahreddine Sa'ad, I will not be a victim of your wars, and I will not be a soldier in your army,” he concluded. The Druze in Israel comprise approximately 130,000 people. They are centered in Israel, Syria and Lebanon, but also have sizeable expatriate communities in France and the United States, centered in Detroit. They are an extremely tight-knit community; no one leaves and no one joins. Despite the repeated threats and actual punishments of Israeli authorities against Arab Druze refuseniks in Israel, more Druze young men are rejecting military service in the Israel army and confirmed their belonging to their Arab nationality, and to the Palestinian people. The youth are rejecting to be part of an army which is occupying Palestine and Arab territories, and reject to be part of the killings and assaults carried by this army. The Free Druze Movement, which is one of the movements against compulsory military service, said that there is an increasing number of Druze young men, aged 18-25, who are rejecting the military service, and that currently there are some 50 young men in Israeli prisons for rejecting to serve in the army. Sami Mhanna, member of the Free Druze Movement, said that Israel always tried to separate the Druze people from the Arabs and the Palestinians, and added that Israel always tried to make the Druze sector isolated from the rest of the Arabs and tried to give the impression that the Druze people are supporting Israel and its policies. Several groups in the Druze sector are currently active against the compulsory military service, and are conducting social events in order to strengthen the cultural and historical roots of the Druze nation.
