"With Israel deep into becoming more Jewish and less democratic, Amal Jamal’s serious, engaged and scholarly book on the Druze and the Israeli State could not be more timely, or more needed. While Jamal’s book is rich in valuable information about the Druze experience in Israel, it is also brimming with analytical and explanatory insights about the determinants and processes that have shaped, and are shaping, Druze society and political life. . . . A must read."—Mark Tessler, author or Religious Minorities in Non-Secular Middle Eastern and North African States
"This book is of great value as the author is answering a very complicated question about the ethnicization of the Druze identity in Israel in an objective way."—Eduardo Aboultaif, author of Power Sharing in Lebanon
"Explores a critical and understudied topic and provides a significant contribution to Druze studies, Israel/Palestine studies, Middle Eastern studies, and comparative minority politics."—Rami Zeedan, founding editor-in-chief of the Druze Studies Journal
Description
For decades, the Druze in Israel have been viewed through a single narrative: a loyal minority defined by military service and allegiance to the state. In Making a Compliant Minority, Amal Jamal dismantles that portrayal, revealing a community shaped instead by a far more complex process of integration, marginalization, and adaptation. Drawing from data on education, employment, political participation, civic activism, and identity, Jamal traces the major transformations reshaping Druze life since 1948. He charts remarkable achievements, particularly the rising presence of Druze women in higher education and the labor market, while exposing the structural inequalities that persist in land allocation, planning, and economic opportunity.
Jamal argues that Druze have faced a deepening crisis of identity born of moral dissonance and the tension between civic loyalty to Israel and enduring bonds to other Arab communities. Sharpened by the war in Gaza, the Nation-State Law, and the 2025 violent clashes against the Druze in Syria, this schism increasingly defines younger generations. Rigorous and timely, Making a Compliant Minority portrays a community caught between protection and belonging.
About the Author
Amal Jamal is dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Romulo Betancourt Chair in Political Science and head of the Walter Lebach Institute for the Study of Jewish-Arab Coexistence at Tel Aviv University.
June 2027