MENA Minorities

Just came accross an older report from Deutschlandradio (in German) about Israel's only mostly Maronite village of Jish including some even older quotes by yours truly. Maroniten in Israel Vertriebene Christen kämpfen um ihr Dorf

The just elected twenty third Knesset has some remarkable features: - four Druze MKs will be sworn in on March 16, which means a high degree of overrepresentation of the Druze community (barley 1.6 per cent of the total population according to official numbers). The Druze members will be: Fateen (Fatin) Mulla from Yarka for the Likud. He had been elected before in 2019 and seems the be the new "Druze No.1 representative" of the Likud instead of former minister Ayoob Kara. Gadeer Mreeh (Ghadir Mrih) from Daliyat al-Karmal for Blue and White. The the my knowledge first female Druze parliamentarian in the Middle East ever had also been elected before in 2019. It's worth mentioning that her candidacy was not opposed by the religious leadership. Jabar 'Asakla from the Eastern Galilee town of Mghar for the Joint List. 'Asakla is a secretary of the communist dominated HADASH gathering. He had also been elected first in 2019. Hamad 'Amar from the city of  Sh...

I have touched the phenomenon of Aramean nationalism among Israel's Christians population  - which is kinda connected with the attempts of recruiting Christians into the IDF - here and here already. Now Haaretz features an article about it but disappoints for mainly two reasons: No mention that Aramean nationalism in Israel is foremost found among the tiny Maronite community (not all Christians) and no discussion of the active part the state is playing in these regards. Israeli Christian community, neither Arab nor Palestinian, are fighting to save identity by Judy Maltz, Haaretz

Over the last year it became pretty clear that the Israeli government aims to give the Arab-Christian population a Druze like status - i.e. mandatory conscription and a legal seperation from the Arab population, which would then be only Muslim. The efforts reached have t o introduce mandatory conscription have reached a preliminary peak with the sending of volutary draft notices to yound Christian Arabs. IDF to send 'voluntary draft notices' to Christian Arabs  by Gili Cohen, Haaretz The Israel Defense Forces will send draft notices to Christian Arab teenagers over the next several weeks in an attempt to increase voluntary enlistment within the community.  Christian Arab citizens of Israel are not subject to compulsory military service. They can volunteer, but few do. According to an Army Radio report on the new policy, every year about 2,000 Christian Arabs reach the...

In Nazareth long time mayor Ramiz Jaraisi ( Hadash , Christian) finally (for the first election in autumn see here ) lost his position to his former deputy 'Ali Salam (formerly with Hadash , Muslim) after a recall election had been ordered by the Israeli Supreme Court. While some might simply argue, that after 20 years in office voters are just tired of Jaraisi, others believe the loss of the mayoralty in the so called "red city" indicates a downfall of the Communist dominated Hadash , once Israel's most important Arab party: Nazareth election beginning of end for Israel's Communist Party by Daoud Kuttab, Al-Monitor The loss of the Nazareth  mayoralty  in the March 11 recall elections marked the beginning of the end of the Israeli Communist Party in Israel. Ramez Jaraisi, the mayor for nearly four decades, lost to Ali Salam , who won more than 61% of the city’s votes.   Israeli Communist leaders in Nazareth accepted defeat and issued a stat...