Ramallah: Christian Palestinian youth have been urged to ignore summons from the Israeli military to join the Israeli armed forces by Archbishop Theodosios Atallah Hanna of Sebastia, Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of occupied Jerusalem.

The cleric has said that the only Christian reply to the Israeli call to service should be that “the Christians will never be the border guard Israel but of the Arab and Palestinian identity”.

Israeli Army Radio announced that the Israeli Army has started sending out automatic summons to Christian Palestinian citizens of Israel of appropriate age rather than waiting for them to volunteer as was previously the case.

The status of the Palestinian population in Historic Palestine is roughly split into three groups: Those who are citizens of Israel, those residents of occupied Jerusalem who have Israeli-issued identity documents but not citizenship, and those who are under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.

Archbishop Atallah said in a statement that the Israeli project to recruit Christian Palestinian youth is destined to failure.

“The Israeli calls will not find ears in the Christian communities,” he said.

“Christian enlistment in the Israeli military forces is categorically refused from our side and the vast majority of Christians know the devastating consequences of these Israeli attempts to destroy and dismantle our Arab society,” he stressed.

“We are Arabs and Palestinians and we will remain with our undisputed loyalty to our origin,” he said. “It is time for Christian Arab youth to act and refuse and ignore all summons sent by the Israeli military forces to join the army.”

The Israeli Army has reformed its policy on the recruitment of Christian Palestinian citizens of Israel with the result that Christian Palestinians will receive summons in the mail, like Jewish teens, and will be able to decline the summons if they wish to do so.

The fact that the military will be the body approaching the recruit and not the other way around is a fundamental shift that communicates a major social and even political message, Army Radio reported.

Israeli military sources told Army Radio that the move will increase the number of recruits among Christian Arabs. Typically, 40 to 50 Christian Palestinians enlist in the military each year, but in 2013, 100 Christian Palestinians enlisted.

The Israeli military estimates that of the 1,000 Christian Palestinian citizen school graduates each year, about 10 per cent will enlist in the Israeli occupation forces. Many of the remaining teens will serve in national service programmes which have also seen a rise in Christian Palestinian participation in recent years.

Gabriel Nadaf, a controversial Greek Orthodox priest who encourages the recruitment of Christian Palestinian citizens, told the Army Radio, “I commend this important and historic step. The Israeli military now sees fit to prove that the Christian sector is a part of Israeli society and to incorporate its members into society as equal citizens with equal rights and equal duties.”