The Israeli Knesset's recent adoption of the Nationality Law, anchoring the Jewish character of the State of Israel, has provoked a number of protests, including a mass demonstration on Tel Aviv's Rabin Square on Aug. 4. The demonstrators focused primarily on the law's discriminatory effect on the Druze community.

In a bid to quash protests against the law, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested a compromise to appease the Druze minority. The additional law he envisions would hold in “esteem the contribution of the Druze community to the State of Israel in building up the country, strengthening security and fashioning the face of Israeli society as an equal and varied society.”

A random visit to any construction site, however, reveals that the contribution of the Arab minority to building the state is no less significant. The same goes for a visit to hospital operating rooms and pharmacy counters. The Druze in Israel number 120,000, or some 1.6% of the population (in addition to 20,000 Druze residents on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights who are not Israeli citizens), an insignificant figure compared to the 1.7 million Muslim and Christian Arabs who constitute more than 20% of Israel’s population. Obviously, the relative contribution of Arab Israelis to the shaping of Israeli culture, economy and science is more significant than that of their Druze neighbors.

Despite this, the greater focus is the marked Druze contribution to “strengthening security.” In terms of military service, the Druze, and the far smaller Circassian minority, indeed have an advantage over the Arab community. Such service is what brought army generals, former heads of Mossad and Shin Bet, and tens of thousands of other protesters to Rabin Square, leaving the Arab community, whose members are not required to enlist, marginalized.