‘My country:’ This Arab fights for Israel

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Yoseph Haddad, an Israeli Arab, has become an outspoken defender of Israel.

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Born in Haifa in northern Israel, he grew up in Nazareth, which is populated primarily by Arab citizens of Israel, who are largely Christian and Muslim.

“I grew up with a mixed society, where I have Jewish friends, Muslim friends, Christian friends,” Haddad said. “I used to play football — soccer — and that was the thing that actually sort of connected all of us. And we didn’t care that this person is a Jew, this person is an Arab. We just wanted to play soccer together.”

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Arab Israelis are exempted from mandatory military service, but Haddad joined the Israel Defense Forces in 2003, serving with the Golani Brigade and attaining the rank of commander, until he was injured in the Second Lebanon War.

“People are absolutely amazed by the situation where an Arab can be a commander over Jewish soldiers in the IDF in Israel,” said Haddad.

Since then, Haddad founded Together – Vouch for Each Other U.S., an organization intended to build bridges between Israeli Arabs and Jews.

In early December, he was met with protests at Concordia University in Montreal, where he was scheduled to speak. Haddad spoke to National Post the following week. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What was it like growing up as an Arab in Israel?

I’ve always found myself travelling between Nazareth and Haifa since the rest of my family, cousins and friends were there. And because Haifa is a mixed city, I grew up with a mixed society, where I have Jewish friends, Muslim friends, Christian friends.

When it was Christmas, then the Christian friends would invite the Jewish and the Muslim and the Druze to come and see the customs of the holidays.

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It actually helped us to bridge gaps and to understand better the culture and the traditions of each community. And that’s how I grew up. At the age of 18, I saw that my Jewish friends and my Druze friends are starting their way into the IDF. And I asked some sort of, we can say, rhetorical question, why don’t I have to serve?

This is my country. This is where I live. The enemies, the terrorists, do not differentiate between Arabs and Jews.

I always talk about the fact that I, as an Arab, was a commander over Jewish soldiers in the IDF. A lot of them even question if it’s possible, but that’s the reality that they don’t know about Israel, because there are people who are pushing narratives that do not even exist. And so being in battle, seeing what I saw, seeing how we as IDF soldiers are trying to do our best in the worst circumstances in terms of fighting, and at the same time being one of the most moral armies in the world, including  — including —what’s going on today in Gaza. Because I promise you, if the war of Hamas was (against) any different army in the world, you would have seen absolutely different results and different numbers. What we’re seeing today is only because of the fact they’re fighting the IDF.

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You’re speaking in Canada. What happened at Concordia, where the event ended up cancelled?

The whole idea was to be in a respective dialogue. They tried to prevent me from arriving even to the area of the university, but we eventually managed to arrive there. And guess what? Extremists — that’s the only definition that I can think about — extremists, the majority of them are Middle Eastern, since I spoke with them in Arabic and not in English, came to the university, and they protested against me.

Some of them threatened my life. But obviously we did not engage in dialogue, because they’re not interested in the dialogue.

There’s no freedom of speech — freedom of speech is all about the Western values. It’s all about what I expect from a country like Canada. Where is the freedom of speech when it comes to our side? But no, the second an Arab stands with Israel, then there is only two options. Either I am a collaborator and a traitor, or I am just a lunatic.

I honestly tell you that I think those people are very dangerous. No, I’m not saying that people are protesting and they’re all like this. No, I’m not. And, in fact, the majority are peaceful, but they’re irrelevant. Because their voices are not actually heard, and the extremists are the ones that their voices are heard because they are louder, they are more extreme.

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Who are you speaking to on your tour? Are they mostly crowds of people who agree with you or are you hoping for a broader sort of discussion?

There are people who are from Muslim and Christian and other communities. Some of them may agree with me. Some of them may agree with me less. That’s why they have actual questions. For instance  — people really want to know, is Israel committing a genocide in Gaza? Those are the people that I call in the 50-50. They’re not pro and they’re not anti. The 50-50 are those who just want to listen to the perspective and the point of view of an Arab who lives in Israel. They just want to hear and see the fact.

Israel has long faced the accusation that it is an apartheid state, not just because of Gaza and the West Bank, but also internally, via policies such as the Nation State law. Do you feel your experience as an Arab Israeli defeats that narrative?

I always call this law a semantic law, because of the fact that it didn’t change anything in our life. It doesn’t mean that racism and discrimination does not exist. It does exist, just like in any country with the Nation Law or without the National Law, whether it’s in Canada, U.S., Europe or in Israel.

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The apartheid South Africa, the whole idea of it was a total separation between the white race to the black race in every aspect of life. But if you go to Israel, in fact, the hospitals in Israel are the best place to show the partnership that exists in Israel, because you will see an Arab doctor treating a Jewish patient. You will see a Jewish doctor treating an Arab patient.

In the international football team, you have Arab players and Jewish players playing together.

You cannot twist that. That’s the reality of it. Again, we are an integral part of the Israeli society.

You’ve spoken about your experience as an Arab Israeli. But does that experience apply to those living in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank?

First of all, apartheid is based on race, and when you see that two million Arabs do not live under apartheid regime, it means that the problems that exist in Gaza or exist in the West Bank is not apartheid, because otherwise we, the Arab Israelis, cannot live the way that we live in Israel, because it will be totally separated based on race.

Now, people are asking, “But Yoseph, don’t forget that Israel controls the sea, controls the air and control the border. It is the largest prison in the world.” Nonsense, nonsense. First of all, we control the sea and we control the air because of the fact that if we didn’t do that, then we would have gotten Hezbollah in Gaza, and Gaza and Tel Aviv are less than 50 kilometres apart, which means it will put all Israel in jeopardy.

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For the anti-Israelis, it is “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Now, people chanting this like idiots, even Canadians, Canadians who were not coming from the Middle East, even them. But when you ask them, do you understand what this would mean? Have you seen the map of the land of Israel?

You’ve also been arguing that Israel is not committing genocide. You’ve mentioned in our discussion the Amnesty International report that concluded that it was. What is your response?

According to Amnesty, right, 42,000 Palestinians were killed. It seems like for them, everyone who was killed is innocent based on the fact that they’re saying one number without differentiation.

They are distorting the number and  people are saying, “But it’s the UN.” And I ask a question: the UN, where did they get this number? They got it from the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Who controls it? Hamas. Hamas is what? A terrorist organization. If you prefer to believe a terrorist organization over an army of a democratic state, then you have a moral problem.

Why they don’t want to differentiate? Why? It’s simple, because if you start to differentiate, and you say, OK, out of the 42,000, 15,000 of them are actually combatants.

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I’m sensible. I’m not OK with any, any, any death of innocent life. But this is war that Hamas started on the seventh of October, when they invaded and they massacred us. When they invaded and raped our women, when they killed Jews and Arabs, when they kidnapped Jews and Arabs, and when we started to defend ourselves, then they start crying. Do not cry if you bring destruction to your own people.

Now, going back to the numbers, the ratio is important, because then you would realize what an incredible job the IDF is doing.

So look at this, 42,000 people, minus 5,000 of natural causes that happens every year, we’re having 37,000. Minus 15,000 dead terrorists, and suddenly you come to a close of a ratio of one to almost less than two. This ratio is unprecedented.

Now I can tell you and show you the numbers of kids that were killed by the IDF from the ages of 14, 15, 16, until 18. All of them were part of the terrorist organization Hamas. So they are active member of a terrorist organization Hamas, who have used them to fight the IDF.

If Israel wanted to commit genocide in Gaza, we could have done the work in 24 hours. No more than that, 24 hours. A genocide is like a simple math problem. Yes, unfortunately.

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Anyone who says that Israel is committing genocide … is an idiot that does not understand, again, what is genocide, and how it’s implemented and what’s on the ground.

We know that we are on the right side of the history. We are actually doing a favour, yeah, a favour, not only to the Palestinians, but to the Middle East, because we’re freeing them from Hamas.

Given all of this, do you believe that peace is possible?

Peace is absolutely possible. The only way to achieve peace is strength and force against terrorism and liberating the Palestinians from the terrorist organizations. Changing the education curriculum. When you do that, new generations would come, when they teach them to understand that they need to live side by side with the State of Israel. Peace. It’s possible.

When the Palestinians actually educate their kids on love and peace and not hatred and war, definitely they will pick better leaders. Israel is willing to do peace despite the fact that we have extremist voices. I am not trying to sugarcoat it, but the difference is that the majority of the Israeli people would have signed everything which maintains the security of Israel, unlike 70 to 80 per cent of the Gazans who supported Hamas and supported the seventh of October.

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