Politicians decry discrimination against Druze soldiers at Dimona
Three IDF troops were reportedly singled out for security check at nuclear facility while Jewish comrades were allowed in
Haviv Rettig Gur is The Times of Israel's senior analyst.
Israeli leaders reacted angrily to reports that three Druze soldiers were singled out for security checks and temporarily barred from entry into Israel’s secretive Dimona nuclear facility for a recent training exercise.
According to media reports Friday, an Air Force unit arrived at the Negev Nuclear Research Center outside Dimona recently to take part in security training. At the entrance to the facility, the soldiers were asked to give their military IDs to the officer running the drill. One officer and two soldiers, all Druze, were subsequently denied entry to the facility, allegedly for the express reason that they, unlike the remainder of the soldiers in their unit, were Druze.
According to reports, when the three soldiers asked for clarification as to why they were being turned away, the officer running the drill explained that it was a decision handed down by the Negev Nuclear Research Center, the civilian administrative body of the Dimona reactor.
Calling the incident “serious and outrageous,” Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, a former IDF chief of staff, said Friday that any such exclusion of Druze soldiers “is opposed to all [IDF] policies, even if [those perpetrating the exclusion] try to hide behind regulations.”
But, he added, “even such incidents of discrimination and callousness won’t undermine the covenant between the State of Israel and the Druze people.” The contribution of Druze soldiers to Israel’s security, the defense minister said in a statement, “is inspiring and exceptional. We will learn lessons from this event so that such incidents do not recur.”
Israel’s 120,000 Arabic-speaking Druze community, who belong to a religious sect founded in the 11th century when it split off from Shi’ite Islam, is one of only a few Arabic-speaking minorities whose members choose to be drafted into the IDF alongside the Jewish majority. The Druze serve in the IDF in a much higher proportion to their population than Jewish Israelis.
That service was a recurring theme in the many condemnations of the incident over the weekend, with the strongest responses came from former and current defense officials.
“We don’t discriminate against brothers at arms,” railed MK Shaul Mofaz (Kadima), also a former chief of staff and ex-defense minister.
“I was terribly saddened to hear about the gross, jarring discrimination faced by the Druze soldiers and officers [sic] in Dimona. I want to believe this was a unique incident, a solitary misunderstanding, but I fear that is not the case. I call on all IDF commanders to investigate the matter and rein in the phenomenon. The Druze people serves honorably as leaders in the ranks of the army. Many of its best sons have fallen in the battle for Israel’s security.”
Condemnation of the incident crossed party lines.
Likud MK Miri Regev is a former IDF spokesperson and outspoken right-wing MK who was once forced to apologize for referring to the growing population of African refugees and labor migrants in southern Tel Aviv as “a cancer.”
“Discrimination against the Druze is a grim warning, and I fear this wasn’t a unique incident,” she said Friday. “It must be investigated with utmost seriousness. The Druze are full partners in the establishment and defense of the State of Israel. The earth of this land is soaked in the blood of Druze sons. Discrimination of this sort, at the Nuclear Research Center or anywhere else, must be condemned and investigated.”
She promised to raise the issue on Sunday in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, of which she is a member.
Meanwhile, Labor MK Hilik Bar called the incident “serious and shameful,” adding, “The matter must be investigated immediately, regulations [against discrimination] must be clarified and the soldiers must receive an immediate apology. It’s simply shameful. Druze soldiers are the spearhead of service in the ranks of the IDF and in Israeli society. We must not allow such incidents to recur.”
And Hatnua MK David Tzur, a former commander of the Border Police, called for the incident to spark a new conversation.
“As the commander of the Border Police, who oversaw Druze officers and warriors and walked with the community in their many moments of grief, I have never doubted their contribution, their commitment and their loyalty. The incident at the Nuclear Research Center filled me with shame and humiliation,” he said.
“It’s time to stop talking about a covenant of blood, and start talking about a covenant of brothers,” Tzur added, an idea that encompassed “infrastructure development, [additional] resources and equality” for the Israeli Druze community.
Opposition head MK Isaac Herzog (Labor) said that “more than any incident, [this one] demonstrates unreasonableness, insensitivity, stupidity and institutionalized racism.”
Kuftan Halabi, chairman of an organization for the advancement of Druze soldiers, called on Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to “stop the fiasco” in the treatment of the Druze community.
A recording provided to the Yedioth Aharonoth daily, which first broke the story on Friday, gave a detailed account of the incident as it unfolded at the entrance to the facility.
“The guy [from the Negev Nuclear Research Center] said you needed to get clearance, and at the moment you can’t enter like the rest of them,” the commanding officer at the facility’s entrance can be heard saying.
When pressed further for an explanation by one of the Druze soldiers, the officer replied, “I don’t know, I’m not in the know; he’s the one giving the orders. I have no idea. He’s a civilian, the security person for the reactor, and he makes their rules. He said he’s asking you to remain outside, I don’t know why.”
The three Druze soldiers said their Jewish peers couldn’t believe what they’d just heard, and several offered to remain behind in the bus with their comrades.
“We’re like everyone else here,” they told the officer in charge. “We are soldiers who give to the state.”
“You’re right,” he said. “Your fight’s not with me, I am not related [to the decision] and I agree. I also said it to the security official [inside the facility].”
After waiting outside for half an hour, the three were finally allowed into the facility to take part in the exercise — but at that point they opted to remain outside in protest of the discrimination against them. The security official who initially refused to let them in refused to speak with them face-to-face, the paper reported.
“It was a terrible feeling of humiliation,” one the soldiers said. “We felt like we were worth nothing. I wanted to get out of my uniform, throw it away and run home. I don’t understand why this happened to us. We are good enough to serve in the army, but they don’t trust us? In my village everyone serves in combat, and half remain as career soldiers. What, they don’t trust them either?”
A report of the incident was forwarded to senior IDF officials, and an investigation was launched into the soldiers’ claims.
“Security at the facility and inspection at its entrance is managed by a civilian company, which checked the soldiers in accordance with the regulations there,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said. “The incident will be investigated by the IDF and will yield lessons for preventing the recurrence of similar incidents in the future.”
The nuclear research facility told Yedioth Ahronoth that entry to the site requires prior coordination and approval and that “anyone who enters the Nuclear Research Center passes a security check at the gate, as in this case. After performing the check, which found everything in order, the soldiers were permitted entry.”
