Major increase in number of Arab volunteers for national service

[oberliner]

There has recently been some skepticism as to the willingness by Arabs to join national service. However, it appears that the number of Arabs seeking to apply for national civic service has quadrupled over a period of only four years and demand exceeds the supply, according to Public Affairs Coordinator in the Administration for National Civic Service Lior Shohat.

"Whereas in 2004-2005 there were only 240 Arab volunteers for national service, years 2008-2009 have seen 1,050 volunteers. The numbers certainly speak for themselves," Shohat said.

Employees of the Administration for National Civic Service which was founded 18 months ago are currently busy with preparations for the new recruit year targeting the Israeli public as a whole and the Arab sector in particular.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3768323,00.html

[shira]

1. guess Arabs don't mind serving an apartheid,racist, genocidal,colonialist, & ethnic cleansing entity

it appears they prefer all that zionist hate and murder over their 'freedom'.

:sarcasm:

[azurnoir]

2. They do not live in the OPT

and perhaps they are in it for the benefits such as perhaps having an easier time getting building permits and such it also makes Lieberman's antiArab campaign look even more foolish

[Donald Ian Rankin]

4. Well, about 1/20th of them don't, by my calculations... N.T.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

3. The numbers do indeed speak for themselves...

There are over a million Arabs in Israel.

1050 may be 4 times more than 240, but it's still less than one tenth of one percent of the Israeli Arab population - which is to say, probably less than one twentieth of those born in a given year.

[shira]

5. 77% of Israeli Arabs prefer to stay in Israel over anywhere else in the world

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/995466.html

and they do not wish for land swaps that would place their villages and towns under PA administration.