Gabriel Naddaf

Gabriel Naddaf was born in Nazareth in 1973. By 2014, he had served as a priest at the church at Mary's Well in Nazareth since 1995.[1] He was identified as belonging to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, had studied theology and psychology, and was married with two children.[1]

Naddaf became a priest at age 22, appointed by Greek Orthodox Patriarch Diodoros I.[6] Five years later, Patriarch Irenaeus I made him a spokesman for the Patriarchate.[6] When Patriarch Theophilos III succeeded Irenaeus in 2005, he appointed Naddaf head of a church in Nazareth and a judge on the Christian religious court.[6] Contemporary profiles also described him as head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Yafia, a community near Nazareth in northern Israel.[1][5]

Naddaf began encouraging Christians to enlist in the IDF in early 2012.[7] In one account, the Forum for Drafting the Christian Community — later known as the Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum — was launched that October by several mid-ranking military officers, most of them Maronite, with Naddaf and two other clerics brought in as spiritual guides.[8] After what was described as a campaign of intimidation, the other two clergy withdrew, leaving Naddaf as the movement's sole spiritual leader.[8] An essay published under his name instead described him and several Christian IDF officers as the forum's co-founders and identified him as its spiritual leader and as spiritual leader of the Christian Empowerment Council.[2]

Naddaf promoted enlistment through home gatherings, conferences, and lectures.[7] He framed military service as a civic duty shared across communities: "We all live in the same home [in Israel] which we must defend. Our future depends on the state we live in."[8] He also argued that army service could help address drugs, alcoholism, and unemployment, which he described as endemic in Israel's Arab community.[8] Challenging comparisons with other groups, he asked: "Why do the Druze serve? Why do the Bedouin serve? But not the Christians?"[6]

By 2013, a Times of Israel report cited figures from the Israeli daily Maariv indicating that 90 Christian high-school graduates had joined the IDF in recent months — a threefold increase compared with 2010 — among an Arabic-speaking Christian population of approximately 130,000.[8] Naddaf himself stated in 2014 that 150 Christians had enlisted in 2013.[7] CAMERA reported that Christian national and military service had reached 30 percent of Christian high-school graduates in the period covered by its article.[9] In December 2014, Naddaf's firstborn son, Gibran, enlisted in the IDF at age 18, began a military communications technician course, and expressed hope of attending an officers' course.[7]

The IDF facilitated Christian enlistment by making the process easier at its Tiberias office, and the Defense Ministry appointed a special adviser to liaise with the Christian community.[8]

Beyond military service, Naddaf pursued a broader communal project: building a distinct Christian identity anchored in Israel rather than in Arab nationalism or Palestinian identity.[6] He advocates that Christian citizens of Israel identify as Arameans rather than as Christian Arabs, describing them as descendants of people who have lived in Israel since biblical times.[2] He has stated that Israel's Interior Ministry recognized Arabic-speaking Christians as the "Aramean nation" following a public campaign.[2]

In a 2015 interview, Naddaf described himself in terms that captured this vision: his religion, he said, was Jewish, his faith Christian, and his citizenship Israeli.[6] He described Arabic-speaking Christians as a "minority of the minority" and expressed hope of rallying 50,000 of them to align with Israel and the Jewish people, saying that overcoming fear was the essential first step.[6] CAMERA quotes him telling prospective recruits: "It's very important that Christians here understand that they have no other place."[9]

Naddaf addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council on September 23, 2014, appearing on behalf of UN Watch during a debate on racism and Christian minorities in the Middle East.[5] He argued that Christians across the Middle East faced persecution while Israel stood as an exception where Christians enjoyed freedom of worship and expression. He declared, "Israel is the only place where Christians in the Middle East are safe," and urged the Council to "end your witch hunt of the only free country in the region."[5]

On November 17, 2014, the Israel Forever Foundation, the Endowment for Middle East Truth, and The Face of Israel hosted Naddaf alongside Congressmen Doug Lamborn and Steve Stockman at a Capitol Hill discussion on the plight of Christians in the Middle East and the freedoms they enjoy in Israel.[10] At that event, Naddaf spoke about Christian persecution across the region and cited what he described as the decline of Bethlehem's Christian population — from roughly 60 percent during the Ottoman period to 40 percent by 1998 and 2 percent by the time of his remarks.[11]

In 2016, Naddaf was selected to light a torch at Israel's Independence Day ceremony, with the stated rationale being his contribution to bringing Arabic-speaking Christian society closer to the state through encouraging IDF enlistment.[4]

Naddaf's campaign generated sustained hostility from Arab political leaders and elements of the Christian community. Arab members of the Knesset denounced him, while MK Hanin Zoabi accused him of "helping the enemy of the Palestinian people" and "collaboration with occupying forces."[1][2] Naddaf was banned from entering Nazareth's Church of the Annunciation and faced possible removal from his position at his church in Yafia.[1] At the end of 2012, when he attempted to enter a church during a boycott against him, Israeli police accompanied him for his safety.[9]

A 2012 conference in Nazareth Illit attended by Naddaf, Defense Ministry representatives, and the city's mayor became a flashpoint: clerics and members of the Christian community council called for a boycott of Naddaf, saying he did not represent them.[3] Naddaf denied responsibility for statements made at the conference and filed a police complaint alleging defamation.[3] The director of the National Service Directorate said that 570 of the 3,000 Arab volunteers in National Service were Christians. He also said that some in the Arab community treated volunteers as traitors and that volunteers were sometimes attacked.[3]

Naddaf reported more direct threats as well. In 2014 he stated that he received death threats daily and described an alleged bounty of $300,000 placed on him.[7] He also reported punctured car tires and a bloodstained rag left at his doorstep, and said he had filed police complaints against his attackers.[8] Despite the pressure, he refused to withdraw from his advocacy, describing the freedom to speak about recruitment as "a matter of faith."[8]

In late 2015, an Acre Magistrate's Court ordered a Shfaram city council member to pay Naddaf 35,000 shekels after the council member compared him to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi; Judge Ibrahim Bulos found the publication unacceptable and defamatory.[12]

In May 2016, a television investigation reported allegations that Naddaf had made sexually suggestive remarks or offers to young men who approached him for assistance with military or police service. It also alleged that correspondence with a Palestinian acquaintance discussed arranging Israeli entry permits in exchange for money or sexual favors.[4] The report acknowledged that none of the young men had filed police complaints and that it could not verify whether the individuals mentioned received permits or whether Naddaf received anything in return.[4] Naddaf denied the allegations, said that others had fabricated evidence against him, and stated that he had never sexually harmed anyone or arranged travel permits for Palestinians.[4]

Police later conducted a criminal investigation through Lahav 433. By July 2018, investigative actions had ended and the file had been sent to the State Attorney's Office for review; the cited reports did not state a final prosecutorial outcome.[13][12] The English-language Ynet report noted that the allegations had not been proven.[13] Naddaf maintained that the allegations were connected to efforts to undermine his enlistment work and claimed that others had accessed his Facebook account and cellphone to frame him.[13]

His enlistment campaign was disputed by Arab Christian leaders who said he did not represent them, while Naddaf presented Aramean identity as an alternative to Arab nationalism and Palestinian identity.[2][3] These positions formed part of the political and communal debate surrounding his public advocacy.