Top Arab Israeli politicians have given their backing to a nationwide volunteer program for recent Arab Israeli high school graduates — an age when most Jewish and Druze Israeli youth are drafted into the Israeli military.
The leader of the Arab Joint List faction, MK Ayman Odeh, and fellow Joint List lawmakers Masud Ganaim and Jamal Zahalka announced last week their support for a volunteer program for army-age youth, which would be administered by local governments in Arab towns, The Times of Israel reported.
The program was developed by two groups that promote Arab-Jewish coexistence: the Abraham Fund, an Israeli non-profit working to promote Arab-Jewish coexistence, and the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation. Yad Hanadiv, a Jerusalem-based charity run the Rothschild family, has provided funding.
A pilot of the program launched last year and is now being run with 160 participants in six Arab towns: Rahat, Hura, Segev Shalom, Qalanswa, Kfar Qassem, and Eloud. The first three are Bedouin towns, where some youth also volunteer to serve in the military.
The Abraham Fund plans to ask Israel’s Welfare Ministry to take over funding of the program once it extends to ten towns.
Dr. Thabet Abu Rass, a co-CEO of the Abraham Fund, told the Times that Arab Israeli volunteers perform jobs equivalent to those in Israel’s existing national service program, which is often used by religious Jewish women as an alternative to traditional military service. However, the two volunteer programs would be separate.
“They don’t want to ‘serve’; they want to volunteer. Service has a security connotation,” Abu Rass explained. He said that the program could help promote equality between Israeli Jews and Arabs, who are exempted from military service.
The effort to promote volunteerism in Arab Israeli communities comes as Israel’s national service program is attracting more non-Jewish youth. Last summer, Israel reported a 650 percent increase in the number of Arab Israelis enrolling in its national service program in just six years.
National service volunteers get the same benefits as Israeli soldiers: a monthly stipend around NIS 800 ($209), free healthcare and use of public transportation, and a grant given at the end of their program that can be used for higher education or purchasing a home. The state will also cover a full year of university studies for participants who served for two years.
The program also has a special perk for Arabic speakers, offering them a free year-long university preparation course that comes with a monthly stipend of NIS 1,500-3,700 ($393-$969).
Arab volunteers are deliberately placed in positions near their homes, allowing them to serve their own communities while retaining their living arrangements. Jewish volunteers, on the other hand, can be assigned to positions across the country.
[Photo: Courtesy ]