Open “Secrets” and Uncomfortable Truths: Druze, Jews and Israel’s New Nationality Law

Of all the ethno-religious minorities pained by the passage of Israel’s “nation-state” Basic Law of July 2018, none have expressed as much hurt as the Druze citizens of the Jewish state.1 Colloquially known as the “nationality law,” the legislation both defines Israel as the “nation state of the Jewish people” and reserves only to Jews the “right to self-determination in the State of Israel.” Understanding the depth of Druze outrage requires an understanding of the evolution of Israeli Druze society and the implications of this populist legislation. It also requires a historical sense of consequences of the colonial partition of the Druze into Syria, Lebanon and Palestine-Israel. This analysis is based on more than seven months of fieldwork, spanning five years, in a Druze village near the Israeli-Lebanese border. Hundreds of hours in discussion with interlocutors spanned the four years leading up to passage of the nationality law as well as the year following it. For sure, parliamentary ratification of a collective destiny for Israel’s Jewish citizens alone, and the concomitant elimination of Arabic as an official language, outrage those Israeli citizens who identify with Islam and Christianity rather than with Judaism and Jewry. Along with the Druze, these other first-language speakers of Arabic make up a full 20 percent of the Israeli population. But neither of these other groups has identified so closely with the Jewish majority as have the Druze. Coincidentally comprising virtually the same percentage of the Israeli population as do Jews of the United States (around 1.8%), rightly or wrongly the Druze are known in the wider societies they inhabit by three generalities. The first is the secret nature of their religion. The second is their loyalty to the state in which they live. (In Israel, this takes the form of willingness to serve in the security services of the Jewish State: the Israel Defence Forces [IDF], the Border Patrol, the police, the prison services.) The third is Druze attachment to their land (mostly in the Galilee, for those of Israel). Superficial understanding of these long-standing stereotypes, however, leads to misconceptions that threaten the famous “blood pact” between Druze and Jews.