Rescued Hostage Returns to World of Opportunities, Challenges for Israeli Bedouins

The IDF’s rescue of an Israeli Bedouin from Hamas captivity served as a reminder of a unique minority in the Jewish state.

Qaid Farhan Alkadi (R), a Bedouin Israeli hostage is reunited with loved ones at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Israel, on Aug. 27, 2024. Courtesy of the Government Press Office/Yossi Ifergan/Reuters

RAHAT, Israel—This week’s rescue of an Israeli hostage from a Gaza tunnel highlights a fact often obscured about the Jewish state: not everyone who lives there is Jewish.

The rescued man, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a 52-year-old Israeli citizen, is a Bedouin.