Arab and Druze Scouts Movement

The Arab and Druze Scouts Movement is composed of four organizations: the Muslim Scouts Organization, the Orthodox Christian Scouts Organization, the Catholic Christian Scouts Organization, and the Druze Scouts Organization.[1] The broader Israel Boy and Girl Scout Federation organizes its units — called shevatim, or "tribes" — across three age groups: ages 8–10, 11–14, and 15–19.[2] The youngest two groups maintain separate boys' and girls' units with distinct programs, while the oldest group is mixed.[2] An early-2000s reference account described the Arab movements as having separate sections for boys and girls and the Druze scouts as all boys, attributing the latter arrangement to the community's religious traditions.[2]

Membership estimates from the early 2000s placed the entire federation at approximately 70,000 members.[2] Within that figure, the Organization of Scouts from Arab Schools — mostly Muslim — accounted for 13,000 members; the Muslim Arab Scouts for 2,000; the Greek Orthodox Arab Scouts for 2,000; the Organization of Catholic Scouts for 3,000; and the Organization of Druze Scouts for 5,000.[2] By the 2005–2006 academic year, the Arab and Druze Scouts were placed in a support tier representing 3.1%–4% of total Israeli youth-movement membership, with a 3.3% support allocation.[1] In 2006, their relative share shifted to the 2.1%–3% tier, at 2.48% before subsidy adjustments.[1]

A 2014–2015 Central District report counted 1,248 Arab and Druze Scouts members for funding purposes, representing 3% of the district's reported youth-movement membership, with 34 young instructors in grades 9–12 — 1% of the district total.[3] Nationally, the same report listed 234 young instructors for the movement.[3] These figures were drawn from Meitzav questionnaires, and the district and national estimates were calculated using different methodologies and are not directly comparable.[3]

The modern Israeli scouting framework traces its origins to 1919, when the first scout troop in Palestine was established at the Herzlia gymnasium in Tel Aviv.[2] Scout groups in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa subsequently formed the Jewish Scouts Federation, which was dissolved after internal secessions in 1930 and reconstituted in 1936 under the Education Department of the Va'ad Le'ummi, the pre-state Jewish governing body.[2] During the British Mandatory period, the Jewish scout organization was coeducational and consequently was not admitted to the world scouting movement or represented at international scout meetings.[2]

Following Israeli independence, the federation was accepted into the world scouting movement in 1951.[2] Two years later, in 1953, the Jewish Scouts Federation merged with Muslim, Christian, and Druze scout organizations to form Hitaḥadut ha-Ẓofim ve-ha-Ẓofot be-Israel — the Israel Boy and Girl Scout Federation — which also included a separate section for religious scouts.[2] The Girl Scouts were affiliated with the corresponding world scouting movement in 1957.[2] The Arab and Druze organizations entered the unified federation through the 1953 merger.[2]

The federation operated within the framework of schools under the supervision of Israel's Ministry of Education and Culture, which appointed half the members of its governing body.[2] It was described as unaffiliated with political parties or sectional organizations and as emphasizing good citizenship and national service, including agricultural pioneering and service in Nahal outposts.[2]

The Arab and Druze Scouts were recognized as one of 16 Israeli youth movements meeting the educational, organizational, and quantitative threshold requirements for government-supported status in 2005–2006.[1] These movements were described as representing Israel's social, cultural, and political mosaic and were supervised and supported by the Ministry of Education's Youth Movements Department.[1] Ministry reports for that period noted increased involvement by Arab and Druze Scouts coordinators in constructing the annual activity program, as well as efforts to establish representative bodies for youth members.[1]

The Ministry of Education explicitly distinguishes the Arab and Druze Scouts from the separate Druze Youth Movement, which was founded in 2001 to combine the transmission of Druze tradition with attachment to the Land of Israel.[1] The available sources do not establish any formal institutional relationship between the two bodies.[1]

The Druze Scouts organization — formally registered as תנועת הצופים הדרוזים – בני מערוף (Druze Scouts Movement — Bnei Maaruf) — has received dedicated government support for heritage programming.[4] A 2020 support committee decision allocated 150,000 shekels across three programmatic components: "Druze Heritage," "Multisectoral Dialogue," and "Druze History."[4]

The program requirements called for eight heritage meetings, eight outdoor multisectoral-dialogue meetings, and eight history field-trip days in each of the movement's 22 branches.[4] The support framework also encompassed joint activities involving Druze community members and members of other communities, as well as memorial sites and commemoration activities for Druze IDF fallen soldiers.[4]

The Ministry of Defense's Security-Social Department supports an annual Scouts March to the tomb of the Prophet Jethro.[5] The target population for the march includes Scouts members, members of all Israeli youth movements, and pre-enlistment youth participating through schools and community centers throughout the country.[5] The department assists local authorities, schools, and movement instructors in promoting and accompanying the activity.[5]

The Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Druze sections of the Israel Boy and Girl Scout Federation participate on an equal basis in jamborees held in Israel and send representatives to international scouting events.[2] The Arab and Druze Scouts Movement was listed among the youth movements operating in Israel's national framework in a 2006 survey, appearing alongside organizations such as the Scouts, Noar Oved VeLomed, Bnei Akiva, and Hashomer Hatzair.[6] That year, approximately 175,000 children and teenagers were enrolled in Israeli youth movements, compared with 147,000 the previous year — an increase of roughly 20%.[6]