“The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 19:34)
Only a month after Israel’s Interior Ministry announced it would recognize Aramean as a national identity on legal documents, Yaakov Halul, 2, from Gush Halav in the Galilee has become the first Israeli child registered as Christian Aramean.
Christian IDF Officers Forum leader Capt. (res.) Shadi Halul and his wife registered the child on Monday, hailing it as an historic event.
A month ago, former Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar approved the landmark decision after the ministry received requests from individuals seeking to be recognized as Aramean.
“My two-year old son made history and [Minister of the Interior] Gideon Sa’ar made history and the Jewish people finally did justice with other nations in this region. We have been waiting for justice for thousands of years,” said Halul. (JPost)
The registration represents the fulfillment of efforts on the part of the Christian Aramean community to attain separate status from the Muslim community.
Halul, a former IDF paratrooper, founded the Aramaic Christian Association seven years ago with the goal of achieving the recognition of the Aramean people as a distinct nationality with their own language and customs. He has also used his organization to promote the recruitment of Arameans and Christians into the Israeli military.
Israel has traditionally treated all Arab minorities as one group.
Christian Arabs, however, have been working to gain a separate and distinct identity in the Jewish state, and this finally came to fulfillment when a bill was passed by the Knesset (parliament) last February that allows Aramean Christians to identify solely as Christians.
About 3,000 Syriac Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, and Coptic pilgrims and bishops participate in a traditional baptism ceremony for the Easter holiday at the Qasr Al-Yahud baptism site in the Jordan Valley.
This law represents the first time that Christians have been granted separate representation. Formerly they were considered part of the Arab-Muslim community.
This is important since Muslims overwhelmingly identify with the Palestinian cause, whereas the Christian community strongly supports Israel as a group and increasingly participates in Israeli society, including serving in the military.
Halul points out that Arameans preceded the Arabs of the region and deserve separate status on that note. Moreover, the community is well aware of the status and condition of their brethren in Arab Middle East countries where most Christian communities are being decimated, forced to convert to Islam or flee for their lives—but not in Israel.
Yisrael Katz, Israel’s Minister of Transportation.
On Tuesday, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz congratulated Yaakov Halul on Facebook.
“Against the background of persecution and destruction of non-Muslim minorities in the region, including the ancient Aramaic people, the decision is infused with special, important significance, and highlights the unique character of the State of Israel,” Katz posted.
A prerequisite for registering as an Aramean Christian is the ability to speak the Aramaic language, which is the language most of the Jews of the Levant and early Christians spoke 2,000–3,000 years ago.
In fact, parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Book of Daniel, and most of the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud are written in different dialects of Aramaic.
In addition to speaking the language, in order to register as an Aramean Christian, one must come from the Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Syriac Catholic or Orthodox Aramaic sects. (Times of Israel)
