In Donna Rosenthal's novel, Ordinary Poeople in an Extraordinary Land The Israelis, she dedicates an entire chapter to the Druze and their acceptance into Israel. She states, "The Israeli government officially designates the Druze as a separate religious community, Which means they have their own religious courts, which oversee marriage,divorce, alimony, propery, and other matters..." (Rosenthal 294) The Druze have experience hardship in Israel since their migration into the country for the reason that the Jews don't see them as Jews, they see them as Arabs. While some Israelis don't feel a need to integrate Druze into the Israeli culture, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he believes empowering the Druze and bridging the gap towards equality is at the top of his list when it comes to the issue of their authenticity. Especially because of the Druze involvement in the IDF and the Border Police, Netanyahu believes that these people are deserving of feeling just as Israeli as the rest of their statesmen. "Jews look at us Arabs and the Arabs call us the buddies of the Jews." (Rosenthal 298) The Druze are not the only people of Israel that feel unwelcome.
Ethiopian Jews arrived from Ethiopia on May 23 in 1991 and once they were in the Promised Land they were not as prepared for society as Israeli's might have expected. "In the hotel lobby, a puzzled newcomer struggled to open a can of Coke, unaware that the white sheet she was draped in toga-style was meant for her bed, not her body. A group of Ethiopians pondered how to use a pay phone." (Rosenthal 151) The Ethiopians were so out of touch from the real world because of their exile to Africa where they lived in huts and did not have modern technologies. Due to this, Ethiopian Jews have been discriminated against by their fellow Israeli neighbors, due to the fact they are not like the traditional Jew and because of how long they have been away from the Promised Land. Still affecting them to this day, as discussed in Tamar Pileggi in her article Ethiopians unable to wed in Petah Tikva, Where Rabbis Doubt their Jewishness, the discriminatory practices of Sephardic Rabbis towards Ethiopians not allowing them to marry because they would deem them as not Jewish enough, therefore could not be married under Rabbinic Law.Both articles used in this post come from The Times of Israel, Tamar Pileggi discussing the issue of Ethiopian Jews not being able to get married under Rabbinic Law and a collective of The Times of Israel staff writing about Netanyahu's views and feelings towards the Druze that live in Israel. Pileggi is a breaking news reporter who shows no bias when reporting the issues of the Ethiopians, as she has done before when reporting on breaking stories involving bombings, IDF and political shifts. just reporting on the hard facts and statements made by people close to the situations. The Times of Israel staff did a good job discussing Netanyahu's commitment to helping equalize the lives of the Druze in Israel, using the Prime Minister's own quotes to discuss the issue. The staff seems to write on the side of Prime Minister Netanyahu, showing how his kind heartedness towards the Druze makes him a good leader.
