Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held a long and apparently successful meeting Nov. 23 in Ramallah with leading members of the Druze community in Israel, telling the small religiously-based community that they are the “purest of all Arabs” for their attachment to their Arab origins and refusal to marry outside their community.

The Druze's Arab nationality is undergoing a rennaissance. Despite serving in the Israeli army, they felt betrayed in July 2018, when the Israeli Knesset passed the nationality law making all non-Jewish citizens in Israel second-class citizens.

Former diplomat Zidan Atsheh, who led the delegation, began the meeting by recalling the role the Druze played during the difficult days of 1948. “Druze welcomed everyone who came to our villages in 1948. Our hosting of them was our moral and national duty to our neighbors.” President Abbas responded by praising Druze for staying put on their land and blasting other Palestinians, including his own family, for abandoning their lands and becoming refugees.

Atsheh described the nationality law as the “assassination of the Arab identity in cold blood in Israel,” adding, “It will have long-term negative implications.”