Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan tours the Makat Textile factory
Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan tours the Makat Textile factoryDeputy Defense Minister's spokesperson

Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan (Jewish Home) on Thursday visited the Druze community in the Mount Meron area of northern Israel.

During the visit, Ben Dahan toured the Maquette Textile factory, which employs 400 Druze women.

"The factory employs 400 women from the community, and provides uniforms and vests for Israel's security forces, as well as gowns for Israeli hospitals," he said. "This factory is symbolic, and it is an example of Israeli and Zionist work."

"The factory's owners believe it has great social value, and the defense system agrees with them. I will do everything I can to continue to encourage the creation of jobs for the Druze community, especially in textiles."

From the factory, Ben Dahan continued to the memorial room in Beit Jann, accompanied by Council Head Bian Kabla'an and the Jewish Home's Druze Forum Chairman attorney Eyal Asa'ad. Following his visit to the memorial room, Ben Dahan visited Sheikh Salmaan Baadar, the retired head of the Druze courts in Israel.

At the memorial room, Ben Dahan spoke to bereaved families, including that of Madahat Yousouf, a Border Police officer who was injured while defending Joseph's Tomb during the Second Intifada. Yousouf died after his injury from loss of blood.

The bereaved families requested Ben Dahan implement the Israeli government's decision to build an official "Yad Lebanim" IDF memorial site in Beit Jann, and the Deputy Defense Minister agreed to their request. The existing IDF memorial to Druze soldiers is in the town of Dalyat el Carmel near the coast in the Haifa area.