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Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures
Surrounded: Palestinian Soldiers in the Israeli Military
An estimated 3,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel currently volunteer to serve in the Israeli military, a force fighting other Palestinians just miles away in occupied territories. Surrounded takes a close look at this controversial group of soldiers, examining the complex reasons these people join the army and the wider implications of their decisions in terms of security and citizenship.
Most observers perceive a clear and powerful divide in the political tensions and open hostilities between the State of Israel and the Palestinian people, but often fail to notice those who straddle this divide—Palestinian citizens of Israel. These soldiers comprise no more than half a percent of this population, but their stories provide a powerful vantage point from which to consider a question faced by all Palestinians in to what extent are they, in fact, Israeli?
Surrounded contains over seventy interviews with soldiers, and provides a unique glimpse of their conflicting experiences of acceptance, integration, and marginalization within the Israeli military. Concluding with comparisons to similar situations around the world, the book upends nationalist understandings of how wars and those who fight in them work. A key to a more complex understanding of ethnic conflict, this gripping and revealing look at a select group of soldiers will immensely alter ideas about the reasons why people choose to fight, particularly on "the wrong side" of a war.
Most observers perceive a clear and powerful divide in the political tensions and open hostilities between the State of Israel and the Palestinian people, but often fail to notice those who straddle this divide—Palestinian citizens of Israel. These soldiers comprise no more than half a percent of this population, but their stories provide a powerful vantage point from which to consider a question faced by all Palestinians in to what extent are they, in fact, Israeli?
Surrounded contains over seventy interviews with soldiers, and provides a unique glimpse of their conflicting experiences of acceptance, integration, and marginalization within the Israeli military. Concluding with comparisons to similar situations around the world, the book upends nationalist understandings of how wars and those who fight in them work. A key to a more complex understanding of ethnic conflict, this gripping and revealing look at a select group of soldiers will immensely alter ideas about the reasons why people choose to fight, particularly on "the wrong side" of a war.
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 10, 2008
2 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
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January 9, 2026
Dust jacket hardcover
You know, Arabs in the Israeli army remind me of minorities in America’s army in the Vietnam war. You have allegations of a higher Arab soldier death rate, predatory behavior of military recruiters going into minority neighborhoods plagued by violence and underinvestment, no solidarity between thể different Arab, Druze, Christian, Palestinian and Bedouin soldiers, a feeling of betraying their community and becoming outcasts, and the decision tô joining the army being mostly out of a desire to ascend economically. The minority soldiers, even if they had engineering degrees and graduated with honors, are often unable to get work without fulfillment of military service. So, in an attempt to join high Israeli society, thể minorities join. Sometimes, a lesser cited reason is to gain military training to gain an edge in local ethnic fights between villages or tribes.
Huh. I think ăn underclass of less privileged people is sort of needed to make militaries work, given the treatment in the military. I mean, it doesn’t have to be this way. We could treat the soldiers better and increase the social and economic benefits they get.
You know, Arabs in the Israeli army remind me of minorities in America’s army in the Vietnam war. You have allegations of a higher Arab soldier death rate, predatory behavior of military recruiters going into minority neighborhoods plagued by violence and underinvestment, no solidarity between thể different Arab, Druze, Christian, Palestinian and Bedouin soldiers, a feeling of betraying their community and becoming outcasts, and the decision tô joining the army being mostly out of a desire to ascend economically. The minority soldiers, even if they had engineering degrees and graduated with honors, are often unable to get work without fulfillment of military service. So, in an attempt to join high Israeli society, thể minorities join. Sometimes, a lesser cited reason is to gain military training to gain an edge in local ethnic fights between villages or tribes.
Huh. I think ăn underclass of less privileged people is sort of needed to make militaries work, given the treatment in the military. I mean, it doesn’t have to be this way. We could treat the soldiers better and increase the social and economic benefits they get.
Displaying 1 of 1 review