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A second Druze officer on Tuesday quit the Israeli military in protest of a recently passed law that recognizes Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people”.
“I have been serving in the IDF (army) for almost five years,” Zidan Shadi wrote on his Facebook page. “Today, I’m a deputy commander in a combat battalion and I have served in all over the country.”
In protest of Israel's controversial "Jewish nation-state" law, a Israeli Arab lawmaker from opposition Zionist Union lawmaker on Saturday quitted the parliament.According to Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, Zouheir Bahloul termed the parliament (the Knesset) "racist" for passing the law, which sparked international criticism of Israel.Bahloul said the law brushed the Arab citizens aside, both officially and constitutionally.The Arab lawmaker said his resignation will come into effect in September when the Knesset returns from its summer recess and vowed not to step back from his decision.The law defines Israel as a Jewish state with a “united Jerusalem” as its capital. It has also promoted Hebrew as the only official language, stripping Arabic as an official language while recognizing its “special status”.The new legislation risks further alienating the Arab minority who argue they already face discrimination from Israeli Jews and the government and already feel as though they are second-class citizens.Palestinians, who have Israeli citizenship make up 21 percent of the population, are known as Israeli Arabs and have members in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.
Israeli Arab MP resigns to protest Jewish state law
“Until this day, I have given the state my soul, I have risked my life. Until this day I stood by the state’s flag,” he said. “But today, I refused for the first time in my service to salute the flag; I refused for the first time to sing the national anthem.”
The army officer said he felt he was a second-class citizen in Israel after the approval of the “Nation-State” law.
“I have decided to stop serving this country. Thank you State of Israel!" he said.
On Sunday, Druze officer Capt. Amir Jmall announced his resignation from the Israeli army in protest of the controversial law.
The legislation, approved last week by the Knesset (Israel's parliament), has angered Israel’s sizeable Druze community, members of which have long served in Israel’s military.
Palestinian deputies in Israeli parliament protested the controversial “Nation-State" law by tearing up a copy of it on Thursday. Israel passed a law on Thursday to declare that only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country, something members of the Arab minority called racist and verging on apartheid.
Palestinian deputies rip copy of Israeli Nation-State law
An Arabic-speaking ethnic group which adheres to its own monotheistic faith, Israel’s Druze -- estimated at some 120,000 people -- are concentrated largely in the country’s northern regions.
Unlike Israel’s Arab Muslim and Christian minorities, Druze men typically serve in the Israeli military and generally consider themselves loyal citizens of the state.