This past week, Israeli Priest Gabriel Nadaf met with Christian and Jewish leaders in New York and Washington. Throughout the span of four days, they spoke of the need to defend religious freedom in the Middle East, starting with Israel. The Greek Orthodox priest believes that it is vital for Arab Christians, who can identify themselves as Arameans, to be integrated into Israeli society.
The nation of Israel recently recognized Aramean as an official nationality. As a citizen of Israel and Arabic in descent, Nadaf refers to himself as an Aramean Christian Israeli. He is from the town of Yafia in northern Israel.
"Jesus himself spoke Aramaic and lived in the land of Israel," he said.
The Christian population in Israel is small. The Arabic Christian population in Israel numbers 160,000 of the total 1.3 million Arabs in Israel. In an interview with The Algemeiner this week, Nadaf said, "The Christians, as a minority that lives within a minority, have to protect their identity and their society within Israel."
Nadaf stressed the necessity of Christians in Israel to join the Israel Defense Force (IDF) and defend the country in order to assimilate.
"The military in Israel is a fundamental base of society," he said, "To integrate, they must serve in the Israeli army and believe that if Israel is threatened by terrorism, there will be no place left for Christians in the Middle East."
"In Syria, there were 2 million Christians. Now there are only 200,000. In Iraq, in the year 2000, there were 4 million Christians, whereas now there are only 300,000," said Nadaf.
He then shared that in Israel, the trend is opposite of its neighbors'. The Christian population, according to Nadaf, has increased from 34,000 in 1948 to 158,000 in 2012.
Nadaf has been urging Christians to join the IDF for the past couple years. He has been met with great opposition from both the Palestinian and Jewish communities. Traditional Arab leaders in Israel as well as the Jewish Patriarchate have denounced Nadaf's actions.
The priest receives daily death threats through social media. His son, who supports his father's beliefs, was severely beaten by extremists this past September and was hospitalized. Both Nadaf and his son continue to pursue their cause of Aramean integration into Israeli society through the IDF.
Nadaf's influence has increased the amount of Christians enlisting in the IDF from an average of 30 recruits to 150. He is confident that this trend will be consistent.
