Linked arm-in-arm, hundreds of Druze villagers wearing black and holding the colorful striped flags of their faith marched in slow, steady step together here this week in a communal act of mourning.
The march was in solidarity with hundreds of their coreligionists – in some cases their own relatives – killed this month in sectarian violence in neighboring Syria, in the province of Suwayda.
“The young ones, who were like flowers, are gone,” rang the refrain of one of the mourning songs.
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Amid sectarian violence in Syria in which hundreds of Druze were killed, Israel struck Damascus and issued a warning to the new government. Israeli Druze are mourning the deaths, but are divided over whether Israeli military action is the wisest course.
“Our voices are hoarse from crying,” says Wafaa al-Shaar, a peace and human rights activist in the Druze community in Israel, as a new truce took shaky hold in Syria. “But we will continue to shout until everyone hears. Until the world understands that this is not just another conflict – but an attempt to destroy an entire community, in the land that is their home.”
For Druze community members who live in Israel like Ms. Shaar, the violence in the majority-Druze province of Suwayda in southern Syria, the heart of Druze life in that country, resonates deeply. In clashes between Syrian Druze militias and Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes backed by Syrian government forces, several hundred people were killed. According to the United Nations, almost 130,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.
In Druze villages in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed, family members often live on both sides of the Syria-Israel border. But even here, after Israeli warplanes struck government targets in Damascus and Suwayda last week, there are voices both for and against Israeli military intervention – a reflection of the complexities of their identity and loyalties at a time the region is experiencing seismic upheaval.
There have been those, including Israeli Druze lawmakers, all three of whom are members of right-wing political parties, who champion Israeli intervention and lobby for even more aggressive moves. Yet others, particularly among the religious leadership, prefer to avoid direct Israeli involvement, says Anan Wahabi, an analyst at the Druze Heritage Center in the town of Yanuh in northern Israel, and a former colonel in the Israeli army.
“After the fall of the regime, the Druze found themselves between a rock and a hard place,” he says, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster by rebels in December. Like the country’s other religious and ethnic minority groups, they have continued to be persecuted and attacked even though President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the Islamist former rebel leader whose group previously was affiliated with Al Qaeda, has promised them protection.
Call to arms
“Netanyahu must overthrow the rule of al-Julani – today, not tomorrow!” says Akram Hasson, a lawmaker from the New Hope party, using Mr. Sharaa’s alias. “As a Knesset member and as part of the government coalition, I have directly approached Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to demand the overthrow of the extremist Salafi regime of al-Julani today, before it is too late.”
It was during Syria’s 14-year civil war that the Syrian Druze community, about half a million strong, established its own self-protection units.
Some Islamist factions and Muslim scholars consider the highly secretive mystical Druze religion, an 11th-century offshoot of Islam, as heretical. The Druze count among their prophets not only Muhammad, but also Jesus and Moses.
Historically, the Druze have been loyal citizens of whatever country they live in. The majority live outside the Middle East, in Europe and around the world, including in the United States. In the region, the largest number lives in Syria, others in Lebanon, and about 10% in Israel. Thousands live in the Golan Heights.
Dr. Wahabi notes that since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, the Druze there have found themselves caught between radical groups, the Syrian regime, and the need to fight for both economic and security survival.
He cautions that within Syria, “Being publicly aligned with Israel is problematic” and could further endanger the Druze who remain there. “On the other hand, it is clear that Israel is very loyal to its community within its borders.”
He says the decision of whether to push for further Israeli involvement, military or otherwise, should come from the Druze living in Syria, specifically those from the community stronghold of Suwayda, located near both the Israeli and Jordanian borders.
As Druze, he says, “We do not interfere in the internal affairs of another country, but we will do everything – through political, public, and humanitarian means – to stop the killing and prevent further deterioration.”
Israeli strategic interests
Last Wednesday, Israel conducted several airstrikes in Damascus, in one case striking near the presidential palace and in another damaging part of the Syrian Defense Ministry. Together with strikes in the province of Suwayda itself, the unprecedented military action in the name of defending the Druze took place alongside a direct warning to the Syrian government to withdraw from Suwayda.
The Israeli government, which has made clear it wants to keep any hint of hostile threats at bay, had warned it would further intensify strikes if Syrian forces did not withdraw from the area, which it considers of strategic importance. By Sunday, Syrian troops began to retreat from the area.
The sight of Israeli warplanes in Syria, and the damage they caused, was in stark contrast to the recent confirmation that Israel and Syria were engaged in official conversations directed at possibly normalizing ties between the longtime enemy nations.
Rania Dean, a Druze activist known for her pro-Israel advocacy, is among those pushing for Israel to play a strong role in protecting the Syrian Druze.
“Israel is the only country in the world that truly knows what the extermination of an ethnic minority on racial grounds is,” she says. “The Jewish people, who experienced the Holocaust and Oct. 7 [the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel], know exactly what genocide is.”
Israel, in turn, she argues, has a moral obligation to the Druze community: “Atrocities continue and the world remains silent. Israel has a responsibility to help protect us.”
