As Israel Enshrines Its Jewish Identity, Its Druze Minority Feels Abandoned

The Druze, an Arabic-speaking religious community making up roughly 2% of Israel’s population, are conscripted into the military and send proportionally more men to fight than the Jewish population—often to elite combat units.

They have long touted their “blood pact” with Israel’s Jewish majority, but their leaders say the nation-state law makes them second-class citizens. The law says that only Jewish people have the right to self-determination in Israel and that Israel is dedicated to the settlement of Jewish people.

Since the law passed last week, two Druze officers have declared their intention to resign from the military, and dozens of former security officials have written letters in protest. Thousands of Druze and other Israelis are expected to gather in Tel Aviv on Saturday to demand equal treatment for the Druze.

“The state of Israel respects our dead, but not our living,” said Naser Saba, 40, from this Druze village of 10,500 in the hills outside Haifa in northern Israel. His brother Alam was killed in 2001 during a military operation and was buried in a military cemetery with an Israeli flag covering his casket. “We want to be wrapped in the flag when we’re alive too.”

The debate goes beyond the usual Arab-Israeli divide and poses a question for Israel: Can it be both a multiethnic liberal democracy and the exclusive national home of the Jewish people?

Mr. Netanyahu says it can be both. He is resisting pressure to change the law, which polls show has popular support.

Those backing the measure, including members of Mr. Netanyahu’s conservative governing coalition, say the law is necessary to codify the reason for the country’s founding 70 years ago as a homeland for Jews. They say the law doesn’t take rights away from any minority and merely recognizes the reality that Israel is Jewish.

“There are unending attempts to rescind the definition of the State of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people,” Mr. Netanyahu said.

On Wednesday, Mr. Netanyahu’s office offered a draft of a plan to address the community’s complaints, including legislation that would “anchor” the status of the Druze in law, offer benefits for minority-group members who serve in the military and recognize Druze’s contributions to protecting Israel.

The Druze people practice a monotheistic religion founded nearly 1,000 years ago. Around a million Druze live in Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Because of their small numbers, they have historically pledged loyalty to whichever government controls the territory they live in.

Many Druze say the nation-state law is an affront that discounts over 70 years of contributions to Israel—stretching back to before the state was born in 1948. Maimoon Azmi, 38 years old, an organizer of Saturday’s Druze demonstrations, said Mr. Netanyahu, who he noted was once saved by a Druze soldier during his own military service, has sold them out.

“We have no other country,” said Mr. Azmi, citing a Hebrew phrase often invoked by Jewish Israelis to explain their ties to the land.

Israeli liberals and Arabs have also criticized the law’s language for not including the word “equality” and dedicating Israel to Jewish settlement. But their concerns were expected and have been overshadowed by criticism from perhaps Israel’s most respected institution, its military.

Alumni from two of Israel’s primary infantry brigades released letters signed by scores of former officers, among them four former chiefs of staff, that expressed solidarity with the Druze and other minorities in Israel’s army.

But the Israeli army’s current chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, on Tuesday asked soldiers to leave politics out of the army, even as he declared that the military is “bound to uphold human dignity regardless of ethnicity, religion and gender.”

The Druze say their outrage is more than political—it is a feeling of alienation from their homeland.

Sitting outside his family’s home in Isfiya, Mr. Azmi pointed to the land his family has inhabited for hundreds of years and said most of his male relatives have served in Israeli’s military. He proudly displayed a photo of his grandfather holding a 1978 newspaper article about six of his sons serving in the military at the same time. Mr. Azmi’s 66-year-old father, Saleh, said he served in the army for 23 years, finishing with the rank of major.

Akram Hasson, a Druze lawmaker who is part of Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition but voted against the law, said he fears the law could create a pretext for discrimination against his children. He and two other Druze lawmakers are trying to have the law annulled by the Israeli Supreme Court.

“We teach our children that this is our land and we must give our blood for this country,” Mr. Hasson said. “We feel like we were stabbed in the back.”

Write to Felicia Schwartz at Felicia.Schwartz@wsj.com