Christians in Israel: Don’t Call Us Arabs

IDF Major Ihab Shlayan—an Eastern-Orthodox Christian—founded the Forum for Christian Enlistment in the IDF. Shlayan believed that Israeli-Arameans should no longer tolerate “the lies” that compelled Israeli Christians to kowtow to Arab sensibilities. He recruited a Greek Orthodox priest from Nazareth, Father Gabriel Naddaf, to head the organization. A somber man who projects an intense sense of mission, Father Naddaf shared Shlayan’s views, and added greatly to the forum’s prestige.

Father Naddaf’s public career began over two decades ago. In 1995, he was appointed to serve as a priest at Nazareth’s Church of Annunciation. Soon after, he began a quiet campaign to change his church and community. Father Naddaf believed that the Eastern Orthodox Church should teach Israeli Christians their history. Why do Israeli Christians consider themselves Arab, he wondered, when “none of the apostles was an Arab? … There is nothing in my roots that says I am an Arab.”

But he was warned by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch not to “cause provocations,” and over the years his quiet efforts bore little fruit. When the “Arab Spring” led to brutal attacks on Christian communities across the Middle East, however, Father Naddaf decided “enough is enough.” The time had come to “cast off the fear and the lies.”

Joining forces with Shlayan, Father Naddaf called upon Israeli Christians to acknowledge that they are not Arabs and enlist in the IDF. Since Father Naddaf made his call to serve, Christian enlistment has increased threefold. But Father Naddaf believes that if Israel would throw its full weight behind its Christian citizens and demonstrate zero tolerance for anti-Aramean incitement, the numbers would increase even more dramatically. The enthusiastic response to Prime Minister Netanyahu in Upper Nazareth—only 300 people attended the forum’s initial conference in 2012—lends credence to this claim.