Youssef Haddad in pursuit of lasting peace in Israel

For more than 70 years, Israel and Palestine have remained locked in a bloody conflict over land to which the Arab and Jewish communities both lay claim.

Historically, international efforts to bring peace to the region have borne little fruit and US President Donald Trump’s latest proposal – of a “deal of the century” – looks likely to meet the same fate.

Palestinians have rejected the new peace plan, which would see a cluster of Arab towns in north-central Israel ceded to Palestine.

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki Al Faisal reportedly said it tried “to make of Palestine what I can call a Frankenstein creation” and was “generally just a monstrous conception of a Palestinian state”.

Youssef Haddad – an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) veteran and the founder of Israeli NGO Together – Vouch For Each Other – believes peace is achievable but that “it relies on Israeli Arabs”.

As an ethnic Arab who was raised in a Christian home, Haddad is part of an extreme minority in Israel. But he said during a visit to South Africa this week that he identified first and foremost as Israeli.

Growing up in downtown Haifa, Haddad said the massive local football culture blurred any other divides that may have otherwise persisted.

“That’s how we grew up. It didn’t matter if you were Muslim, Christian or Jewish. We all just hung out together. And for me, this is how I saw the Israeli society,” he explained.

Despite the fact that as an Arab he was not subject to the same mandatory conscription as his Jewish peers, when he turned 18, Haddad decided to enlist in the army.

“Eventually, this is my country. Eventually, I am part of the Israeli society. So I decided to volunteer for the army,” he said.

Haddad was a member of the elite Golani Brigade and fought in the second Lebanon war.

“I lost two soldiers, seven friends and three commanders,” he said.

And two days before a ceasefire was called, Haddad almost lost his life after a rescue mission to evacuate soldiers who had been hit by an anti-tank missile.

“They were badly injured. I will never forget seeing the commander – totally burnt, screaming from pain,” he said.

A complex operation eventually saw Haddad and his team get the injured soldiers to a waiting helicopter and on to safety.

But by the time they returned to base, he said, they had become exposed.

“We were sitting ducks.”

An anti-tank missile launched at Haddad, missed him. But it hit a wall nearby and blew off his foot. He was evacuated and rushed to hospital, where he lost consciousness. Six days and 12 surgeries later, Haddad awoke to the news that doctors had managed to reattach his foot but he would likely have a disability for the rest of his life.

Haddad was determined to prove the doctors wrong, though.

“A year later I walked into their office with a football and started kicking it around,” he said.

After his time in the military, Haddad joined a marketing research company where he rose through the ranks to the position of CEO.

Two years ago, he quit his job and threw himself at Together – Vouch For Each Other.

“Our goal to bring the Arab sector closer to the Israeli society and closer to the country as well as to be an integral and crucial part of decision-making in the country,” he said.

“We are an Israeli Arab organisation and the board is made up of men and women from all sectors.”

Haddad said the organisation’s name originated from something a fellow soldier had once told him in the trenches.

The soldier in question had later thrown himself onto a grenade to save his unit.

The organisation worked to “bridge a gap”, said Haddad.

“We go and speak in front of Jewish people and we go and speak in front of Israeli Arab people. We believe that racism is ignorance and that when you start giving people information, they are no longer ignorant.”

Haddad denied that the Arab community in Israel was living in apartheid conditions and said the solution to the persisting conflict was, at least in part, to better integrate Israeli Arabs into Israeli society.

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