Australian journalist Philip Luker tells how he met and photographed Israeli female soldier Miri Assor and outlines her life and the lives of Jews and Palestinians in Jerusalem. Luker describes how Israel was created and conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, how the Israeli Government has taken land from Palestinians and how Islam was split between Sunni and Shi’a sects, and the results.        

Miri Assor is a 19-year-old Israeli female soldier in Jerusalem, carrying her automatic gun around her neck as she casually eats a bun on patrol in one of the world’s most tense cities.

The problem Miri faces in Jerusalem is that it is a holy city for Jews, Muslims and Christians and both the Jews and Palestinian Muslims consider it their capital. 

Jerusalem has been sacred to Jews for 3000 years, to Christians for 2000 years and to Muslims for 1400 years. The city contains 1204 synagogues, 158 churches and 73 mosques.  It has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times and attacked 52 times.

Israel in 1948: In 1948, long before Miri was born, the Western powers created this tragic conflict.  Palestine was part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which collapsed with Germany in World War 1…Britain assumed control of Palestine and established Palestine as “a national home for the Jewish people”…Jews immigrated there from all over Europe, opposed by Muslims,  who regarded Palestine as their country.

535 female Israeli soldiers killed between 1962 and 2016

What Miri has to do is keep the peace. It has not been easy: 535 female Israeli soldiers were killed in combat between 1962 and 2016. Eighty-eight per cent of all roles in the Israeli Defence Force are open to women like Miri. Despite being officially classified as combat soldiers, women in combat roles are not deliberately sent into combat although they are expected to respond if combat erupts. 

Mandatory army service:  Israel is one of the few countries with mandatory army service for women and women comprise 33 per cent of all its soldiers and 51 per cent of its officers, although mothers do not serve in the Army.   Some women have become fighter pilots.

Young women like Miri must do two years’ military service from age 18 and stay in the Reserve until they are 38.  Officially in Israel, women have equal status with men but men earn more. Israel is eleventh out of 59 developed countries for women participating in work but 24^th for women in executive positions.

Miri’s position in Israel is better than if she were a Palestinian.  Of the 8,500,000 people in Israel and its occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, almost five million are Arabs and half the Arabs live in poverty, a higher proportion than people in Mexico, Chile or Turkey.  Palestinians are attracted to jobs and business in Jerusalem but Israel makes it very hard for them to enter. Thirty-eight per cent of Jerusalem residents are Palestinians and tens of thousands of them live behind a concrete wall that cuts through the city. Palestinians working or doing business on the other side of the wall have to queue at checkpoints.

Half a million people live in poverty and despair in Gaza

Gaza is a cauldron of deficit, despair and desperation.  Its land area is only 41km long and 10km wide but its population of half a million have to make do with four hours of electricity a day and little fresh water because the pipes are contaminated with sewage.  Israel controls its coastline and all entry and exit points and access to the Gaza Strip is so restricted that not many goods get into or out of Gaza, including goods which Palestinians want to sell.   

Israel and the Hamas group, which controls Gaza, have been more or less at war for decades because Hamas claims Israel is Palestinian territory and regularly sends rockets into Israel.  Israel sent troops into Gaza in 2008, 2012 and 2014, killing many Palestinians. It uses soldiers like Miri to stop known Gaza terrorists getting into Israel. Hamas is even in conflict with Hezbollah, which controls the larger West Bank, one reason being that Hamas is a Sunni organisation and Hezbollah is Shi’a. 

The Sunni-Shi’a difference: Therein lies the core difference in the Arab world.  Followers of both Sunni and Shi’a sects believe the Prophet Muhammad established Islam during the Seventh Century.  

Division between Sunnis and Shi’a Muslims

The division between the two sects started after he died in 632AD.  Sunnis believe he had no rightful heir and that a new leader should be elected by a vote.  They believe Muhammad’s followers chose Abu Bakr, his closest friend, as his successor. Shiites believe that all Muhammad’s successors must be descendants of his family. They chose Ali, his cousin and son-in-law, as his heir.  Only ten per cent of Muslims are Shiites and the only countries with a Shi’a majority are Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Bahrein.

Miri Assor, the bright Israeli guard with a gun and a bun, is faced with the ever-present possibility of armed conflict not only between Palestinians against Jews over their claims to Israel but also between Sunnis and Shiites over who was Muhammad’s rightful successor.