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Comment by grumple | Hacker News Reader

Just in case you are unaware, there are two million Arab Muslims citizens in Israel. Some of them consider themselves Palestinians (which is really a nationalist movement), some do not - but they are the same people / ethnic group that was there during the 48 war. These are full citizens, full members of Israeli society, not the Palestinian non-citizens in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza.

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Full members of society you say. What's the highest rank any of them have achieved in the IDF?

If we're counting Druze, Major General. If not Colonel.

How much of that is due to prejudice and how much is due to Muslims generally not joining the military is a question I can't answer.

Huh interesting. My understanding (from conversation with some Israelis) was that Arabs were not drafted as the rest of the population are. Obviously they were mistaken though.

Non-Druze Arabs aren't conscripted, however a small number volunteer every year.

Ah ok, thanks for the education. I guess that's really where I was coming from. I get the complexities, but it's hard to see another democratic state having such policies.

Everyone knows this.

You'd think so, I have been told that being Palestinian is arrestable offence in Israel. Some people are very delusional about the actual situation on hand, as evident by some of the comments here.

One of the many things that helps in thinking clearly about this conflict, and the perspectives one has already encountered, is to distinguish Arab Muslim Israeli citizens from Palestinians who reside in Gaza or West Bank.

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