Israeli Military Service Requirement Discriminates Against Arab Citizens
Using military service as a prerequisite for certain jobs and other societal benefits amounts to discrimination against those unable to serve, such as Israel's Arab citizens, writes Jillian Kestler-D'Amours.
JERUSALEM — A government move to provide jobs in Israel’s high-tech industry to ultra-Orthodox Jews who haven’t served in the military has raised pointed criticism that Israel is conditioning basic rights on fulfilling army service, and unfairly discriminating against citizens who are exempt from the military.
“Military service is kind of a tool that is being used more and more in order to exclude the Arabs, because they don’t do military service,” explained Sawsan Zaher, director of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Department at Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.
“They must do an individual check to see whether the applicant is suitable for the job or not. Putting an arbitrary [military requirement is] saying all Arabs are not welcome to even apply to this job,” Zaher told Al-Monitor.
Last month, Israeli Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing Jewish Home party, said during a conference of the Israeli Union of Advanced Industries: “We'll see a significant rise in the coming 10 months in high-tech employment rates because of the integration of haredim (ultra-Orthodox) who will not have to enlist in the [army] in order to work.”
