The Arab Youth (Baladna) association is a Haifa-based organization offering services and assistance to Palestinian-Israeli youth.
I stumbled upon this interesting video - part of a campaign titled "I will not serve!" (أنا مش خادم!) denouncing the Israeli 'Civil Service' programme. The title is Arabic can also be translated as "I am not a servant!" - a deliberate double entendre I reckon.
The reasons they put forth for refusing the civil service mostly orbit around the fact the anti-Arab discrimination in Israel is not part and parcel of the national philosophy, not a matter of serving or otherwise; and that doing the 'civil service' shouldn't be - and indeed, isn't - a criteria that determines whether people receive state services: Druze villages, for instance, lag largely behind in higher education, despite serving in the army; army volunteers coming from 'unrecognized' Arab villages saw no change in their village's legal status after service. (Israel has systematically refused to recognize any Arab community established after 1948.. with only a single exception).
The video embedded here was released a few days ago (but the campaign started a while back) features a girl telling her friend she's considering going to civil service - and her friend tells her the civil service was established by the Israeli army, in an attempt to normalize the concept of service the State and the Army, etc. The music is atrocious, and the argument focuses on the Army connection rather than the reasons listed on the website which I summed up above. But overall, I think it's an extremely interesting campaign.
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4 comments:
I just want to let you know how thrilled I am for Egyptians...
It is certainly an exciting time..! I carry Palestinans and Egyptians close to my heart, and think of them every day.
Thanks Rocky, that's heartwarming to read!
It's an exciting time for Egypt indeed. you should drop by! :)
You mean "national service" -- the alternative to army service?
I think its an unfortunate campaign because it is self-segregating; most Israeli kids grow up in their own neighborhoods, own villages (Jews as well as Arabs) without having a lot of contact outside their own schools. The army breaks down a lot of those barriers, but so does national service. My son's sole Arabic comes from volunteering in a hospital where Arabic is a common as Hebrew...and it's hard to have stereotypes of "Arabs" when they're the guys you have lunch with.....
That would've been my first reaction too, Sarah, but I reckon we'd need to put ourselves in the shoes of the target population here.
See while the majority generally knows next to nothing about the minority (and I'm not talking about Israel, just any national majority) the minority however knows everything it needs to know - and a lot more - about the majority.
Now in Israel the majority - Jews - have a terribly negative idea of the Arab minority.
So if you were an Arab, would you bother volunteer for the State, in a programme run apparently by the army, alongside people who hate you because you were born into an Arab family?
Essentially, what would they gain from this volunteering or this proximity?
That's the real question we need to ask - and that the gov needs to address if they're serious about getting ppl to join.
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