Ramallah: An increasing number of Palestinians citizens of Israel and those from occupied East Jerusalem are joining the Israeli national service, the regime has claimed.

According to general director of the Israeli National Service Program, Sar-Shalom Gebri, presently, 4,500 non-Jews are doing national service, an alternative to the army, of whom 100 are from occupied East Jerusalem. That total is three times more than those coming from the Jewish ultra-Orthodox community (1,500). According to Israeli statistics, from the total 4,500 non-Jewish volunteers, 70 per cent are Arab Muslims, while the rest are Arab Christians, Druze and Circassians. Ninety per cent are women.

Gerbi said that Palestinian volunteers can find themselves in “tough situations.”

“It is understandable why Arabs don’t want to serve in the Israeli army, which they are not obliged to do by law,” he was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel news site. “Now they can serve their own communities and get the benefits of a solider.”

Gerbi said he has no doubt the numbers of non-Jewish volunteers in national service will continue to rise.

“A total of 85 per cent of the Arab volunteers find good jobs afterwards,” he said. “They understand this can also be an entry card into the Israeli society.”

Fakhri Abu Diyab, who heads the local committee in defence of occupied Jerusalem, said that the statistical correlation revealed by Israel, if true, reveals that Israel’s strategy to incentivise Arab enlistment “has been no success for Israel at all.” He said that numbers speak for themselves as only 0.033 per cent of Jerusalem society (with a population of 300,000) had been seduced with the Israeli benefits to become more a part of Israeli society.

Israel occupied Jerusalem in 1967 and offered its native Palestinian residents citizenship. Despite the ostensible socio-economic benefits that come with Israeli citizenship, the vast majority of Jerusalemites have rejected it, and instead hold Israeli-issued blue identity cards that are distinct from those of the Palestinians of the occupied West Bank.

“Apart from the high monthly wages during service and fine jobs afterwards, Israel offers Jerusalemites 75-80 per cent discount on the total taxes imposed on them,” he told Gulf News, calling the taxes unfair and illegitimate. “Israel also permanently postpones and even totally suspends demolition of property orders issued for Jerusalemites under that condition.” The regime has otherwise been engaging on a large scale demolition of homes of native Jerusalemites it says were built without permits. Critics say the move is aimed at ethnically cleansing Palestinians from the holy city and making way for Jewish colony instead.

Jerusalemites, he said, realise that serving in Israel’s national service program directly means recognition of the occupation. “Israel has recently launched a campaign to convince Jerusalemites to serve in this program,” he said, stressing that consensus over direction, regarding Israel’s national service program, had emerged in Jerusalem society that serving in the Israeli national service is fundamentally rejected and those who serve in this program are boycotted by the society which sends in a clear message to all Jerusalemites that despite Israel’s tempting offers, Jerusalemites should consolidate national unity and remain faithful to Palestinian values.