Tensions simmer at Druze memorial ceremony attended by Likud minister Nir Barkat
As activists demonstrate peacefully, Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif calls on state to allow young Druze to build legally on their land
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
Tensions over two laws that the Druze community regards as discriminatory were felt at a memorial event on Monday in the Druze town of Isfiya in northern Israel, at which the Likud party’s Economy and Industry Minister Nir Barkat took responsibility on behalf of the government for the events of October 7.
Barkat vowed to ensure that lessons would be learned from the probes into the war, in which eight Druze soldiers have so far died.
The ceremony went smoothly, in contrast to last year’s, when Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel (also of Likud) was prevented from entering the town’s military cemetery partly because she supported a law that enshrined Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, which is seen by the Druze community as exclusionary.
Around a dozen activists wearing T-shirts with the slogan “The Kamenitz law has turned us into criminals” demonstrated peacefully outside the cemetery gates against a second law that has inflamed Druze sensitivities — a 2017 amendment to the planning law named for the Justice Ministry official who drafted it to fast-track action against illegal building, without going through the courts.
The amendment is widely understood to target Arab communities, where building permits are almost impossible to secure, with the result that Arabs build illegally and are then fined or threatened with demolition by the government.
Many Druze men, whose community largely supports the State of Israel, are drafted into the army. Though the community of 150,000 makes up just 2 percent of the population, the Druze account for 3% of all career soldiers, according to the IDF.
Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif raised the planning issue during his address, saying that while Memorial Day should focus on those who gave their lives for the country, the government had to honor the “covenant of blood” between the Druze and Israel, and take steps to allow young Druze to build legally on their land, allocating “land for the living, and not just for the dead.”
Barkat, who reportedly plans to challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as leader of Likud after the war against Hamas ends, said, “Memorial Days are days of soul-searching. The government of Israel carries full responsibility for everything that happens in the country, the good and the bad.
“The government and the cabinet bear full responsibility. And as a member of the government, I take responsibility. At the end of the battles, I’ll do everything to ensure the implementation of the investigations and the findings. “
Hamud Marzuk, a leader of the Heart of Isfiya organization, set up to campaign against the Kamenitz and nation-state laws, told The Times of Israel that during his 32 years as a firefighter, he had never considered people’s ethnicity when saving their lives.
While the government was not demolishing Druze homes, the fines it was imposing on members of the community for illegal construction — including those who had lost family members in wars — were “destroying people’s lives,” he said.
Rafik Halabi, mayor of the Druze town Daliyat el Carmel, adjacent to Isfiya, said, “It’s totally justified to demonstrate, even today. The time has come for us to be equal not only on Memorial Day for fallen soldiers.”
