The Ladder and the Gate

Rami Zeedan is Associate Professor of Israel Studies at the University of Kansas and is the founding Editor in Chief of the Druze Studies Journal. He is the author of The Arab-Palestinian Society in the Israeli Political System: Integration versus Segregation in the Twenty-First Century and Battalion of Arab: The History of the Minorities' Unit in the IDF from 1948 to 1956.

"Drawing on extensive archival research, Rami Zeedan's The Ladder and the Gate: Arab Soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces and the Creation of Militarized Citizenship, 1948-1973 offers the first comprehensive historical account of non-Jewish Arab soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces from 1948 to 1973. Moving beyond existing sociological and ethnographic accounts, he provides a detailed analysis of the military role and political incorporation of Druze and Bedouin units within the IDF. This important book makes a major contribution to the study of civil-military relations, minority incorporation, and the unequal dynamics of citizenship in Israel."-Dr. Yagil Levy, the Head of The Open University Institute for the Study of Civil-Military Relations, Israel "Zeedan provides the most authoritative source to date on the history of Arab soldiers in the Israel Defense Force. Meticulously researched and expertly told, the relevance of the analysis extends well beyond Arab military service, illuminating the complex dynamics of citizenship hierarchies, belonging, and social mobility."-Oded Haklai, Professor of Political Studies at Queen's University, and author of Palestinian Ethnonationalism in Israel "This is the most comprehensive and important book written on the issue of the recruitment of Palestinian Arabs into the Israeli military. The purpose of this book is to examine the recruitment of Arabs into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from both historical and sociological perspectives. It explores the motivations behind the recruitment of Arabs, their contributions to Israel's security-particularly during various wars-and, on the other hand, the impact of military service on the construction of their identity and their integration into the state as equal citizens. And this book does justice to the issue of Druze conscription, addressing it within the broader context of the Arab population as a whole."-Rabah Halabi, author of Israeli and Palestinian Identities in DialogueI "This timely and necessary book examines how the politics of military service shaped the relationship between the Israeli state and its Palestinian citizens. Through impressive archival research and sharp analysis, Rami Zeedan shows how military service delineated the changing terms of exclusion and limited incorporation under a differentiated militarized citizenship. Readers interested in military history, civil-military relations, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will find much to admire and learn from in this book."-Shaul Mitelpunkt, author of Israel in the American Mind: The Cultural-Politics of US-Israeli Relations, 1958-1988 "This is a genuine documentation of the status and the motives of Arab enrollment in the Israeli army."-Eduardo Wassim Aboultaif, Assistant Professor, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, and author of Armed Forces in Deeply Divided Societies: Lebanon, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq and Burundi: Militaries in Power-Sharing Systems