religion in Israel
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The 2 million muslims living in Israel right now
How can Israel prevent their one-fifth Muslim population from revolt or turned on them in response to invasion of Gaza?
I studied abroad in Jerusalem. The Arab Israelis and the Jewish Israelis keep to themselves, but there isn’t any tension or anything.
More specifically, there’s nothing to be tense about. They are Israeli citizens. Israel is a secular state that has a lot of religious institutions in its borders, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Druze, etc. Arab Israelis are exempt from military service, but many do still serve.
Aside from potentially having a disproportionate number of Pro-Palestinians in their ranks, I didn’t notice any cultural division that made me think this would be an issue, but I thought there would be something like that before I arrived.
Something that helps add color here… there is a large population of Arab Jews. These are Jews who were living in Morocco or Baghdad or Syria and made their way to Israel. There are also Arab Christian Israelis. There are also Ethiopian Jews in Israel, some of whom aren’t religious at all, and who are by far the poorest ethnic group.
So, there are already these social divisions, the existence of which eliminate any stark contrast between the “Israelis” and the “Arab Israelis” that you might suspect would exist. It’s much more heterogeneous than this.
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We all know Israelis aren’t exactly welcomed with open arms in most Muslim countries, yet millions of Muslims live in Israel today with full citizenship. Why is one side is more tolerant than the other?
If Muslims kept 2 million Jews in a 25x5 mile strip, with no Iron Dome and bombed it every couple of years, killing hundreds to thousands at a time. How welcoming would Jewish communities be toward Muslims then? Think about it, they’ve endured one brutal attack, and it’s already pushed emotions to the brink. But what if they faced 10? or 12? Would the tolerance be the same?
In my opinion? Absolutely not.
This is bigger than tolerance. For Israelis, every rocket from Hamas represents an existential threat, constant fear of rockets and bombings shapes their daily lives and their national psyche. On the other hand, Palestinians live in extremely harsh conditions, denied basic freedoms or autonomy, and regularly subjected to military assaults. Both sides are living under the shadow of violence, but the power imbalance between them is stark. Israel has high-tech defense systems, a powerful military. Palestinians? Just sporadic rocket fire, often intercepted.
So yes, the imbalance in bias is starkly obvious, but it’s because the circumstances are so different. If the roles were reversed, and Israel had faced multiple similar attacks that killed hundreds to thousands of their loved ones and countrymen each time, honestly, would anyone really still be talking about tolerance? Simple answer, nope.