Who’s Symbols?

Throughout the last week at Michve Alon, everyone finishing Hebrew Course was having rehearsals for the ceremony. In that last week we had two rehearsals on the big court area on our base, getting ready for the actually ceremony that was going to take place that Wednesday. These rehearsals included positioning, commands we’d have to say, as well as a run through of the ceremony to get ourselves familiar with how the day will play out.

Between all of the five plugot (battalions) that were there, four of them comprised of foreigners like myself who needed this time to improve our Hebrew. The other battalion consisted of Bedouins and Druzim, two different sects of populations in this country. They came here for different reasons than we did, and needed these three months as a softer transition into the new world of the IDF.

In the ceremony, my machlakah (platoon) was placed right beside the Bedouin and Druze battalion, and so I got to see them throughout the ceremony and prior during the rehearsals. The big difference between them and us at the ceremony was that most if not all of them were swearing on the Koran, and not the Bible as we did. However, while that was the only physical difference, I assumed that their mentality towards the ceremony was different at certain points, and had a different feeling towards some of the stuff we were doing.

During the rehearsal, as we got to the part where we sang the Hatikvah (Israel’s national anthem), I looked around and saw almost everyone singing. However, when I peeked to my left towards the Bedouin and Druze battalion, I saw one maybe two people singing, out of what might have been over fifty individuals. I was trying to see if more people were singing, maybe even mumbling the words, but I couldn’t find anything.

The Hatikvah song itself, if you look at the words, is less of a national anthem for the State of Israel, even though it is in many ways, and more so an anthem for the Jewish people talking about our yearning for two thousand years to return home, and how we get to be a free people in our land. It is an anthem that is very easy to relate to as a Jew, and one that is almost impossible to relate to if you are not, because it just simply doesn’t talk about anyone else’s story. I obviously can’t assume that a majority of the Bedouins and Druzim were silent due to a disagreement or lack of attachment to the anthem, but there is definitely something to be said about the lack of them singing along, compared to everyone else.

Going off of that mindset, and then being at the Kotel (western wall), I wondered while I was there what was their connection to this place. For most of us, not only was the ceremony meaningful, but the choice to be at the Kotel as well. As we were swearing in, the Kotel helped remind us what we were fighting for, and why this was so important for the Jewish people. However, it is very understandable to question what did everyone else think about this location. Did the Bedouins and Druzim have that same connection, did they feel no connection at all, or maybe were they appalled by the fact that the ceremony took place at a location meaningful for a majority but not all of the soldiers there?

At the end of the day, I am not proposing a change to the national anthem or to the location of future ceremonies. I for one love the anthem, and felt it to be very meaningful having my first ceremony at the Kotel, a center for the Jewish people all around the world. However, I think it is important to think about the symbols we hold near and dear to us as a country, and what these symbols might mean for everyone. Furthermore, it is important to think about how a country can be built that fairly represents its entire population, despite the original goal being created to serve the purpose of one specific people.