Former MK Ayoob Kara: For Generations, His Druze Family Fights For Israel

Arab fundamentalist opposition to his family’s support for the Jewish people forced his grandfather to relocate to Caesarea: “In Caesarea, my grandfather’s job was to help the Jewish kibbutzim and moshavim from 1930 till the independence of Israel. They moved back to Daliyat Al Karmel after the independence of Israel. During all this time, my grandfather and my family cooperated with the Lehi, Etzel and all the underground Jewish organizations that needed our cooperation to establish the State of Israel. In 1947, another uncle disappeared due to the cooperation between my family and the Jewish community.”

The fighting spirit of Kara’s grandfather was passed down to his father: “In 1948, my father volunteered to become part of the Israel Defense Forces to fight in the War of Independence. He fought and helped to occupy the Galilee Mountains and got injured in this war. He was severely injured all over his body. They thought that he died but he managed to survive and to get married, and to have three boys and three girls.” 

Nevertheless, although Kara’s father managed to survive the War of Independence, he suffered a lot for this country. In total, he lost two brothers, two sons and two cousins in the service of the State of Israel. This family tragedy is what prompted the former minister to go into politics. After he was disabled and suffered grave loss, he could not be an IDF general like he dreamed to do, so he sought to serve in other ways. 

Even though he is Druze and not Jewish, he sacrificed much for the State of Israel. For this reason, the former minister is greatly disturbed whenever people promote the Nakba narrative because according to him, the term Nakba is nothing more than a public relations ploy utilized by the Palestinian side, which has no basis in the reality.

“The Nakba never happened for there never was a Palestinian state. Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel, the Holy Land was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, of which Syria and Egypt were the main provinces in the area. In contrast, the Jewish people have 4,000 years of history on this land, dating back to the Prophet Moses. The real Nakba was experienced not by the Palestinians, but by the Jews from Arab countries. Close to a million people, from Egypt to Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Morocco, lost their homes.”

Kara maintained that while the State of Israel absorbed these Jewish refugees, the Palestinians in the Arab countries have been denied all civil and other basic human rights. “It is preferable to stay foreign and not to build a new future, not in Lebanon, Syria, or Egypt. They are waiting to occupy back the Holy Land, something which creates a Nakba. If they are Arabs, why do they not become part of the Arab states? This is the problem, he stated, “they do not accept Israel. From before 1967, the PLO and other terror groups were so dominant, fighting Israel before the war in 1967. The problem is not land. It is culture and religion. This is the problem in the Middle East.”