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An Israeli Arab Military Prosecutor for the IDF
(Christian Science Monitor) Christa Case Bryant - Arin Shaabi, a military prosecutor in the Israel Defense Forces, is one of 94 Arab Christians in the IDF. Arabs like Shaabi are exempt from military service, but she volunteered, and even fought against cultural and bureaucratic resistance, to get a job in which she is responsible for prosecuting Palestinians. Shaabi comes from the Arab city of Nazareth. Her maternal grandmother was born Jewish, but converted to Christianity when she got remarried to an Arab Christian man in the late 1950s. Her mother was raised Christian, and raised Shaabi that way. "I grew up with the idea that this is where we live, this is our country. And in the same way that we have rights, we have responsibilities," she says. "So I felt that even though it's not mandatory for me to join [the IDF], it's my responsibility to do it."