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Tensions grow with Israel’s Druze community

Israel questions how far it should go to aid Druze communities in the south of Syria
[additional-authors]
June 24, 2015

This article first appeared on The Media Line.

Israeli ambulances carrying wounded Syrians for treatment in Israeli hospitals will now be accompanied by police, after more than 100 Druze protestors attacked an ambulance, and killed a man they said was a member of the rebel forces in Syria. Israel arrested several Druze residents and leaders of the community condemned the attack.

The unprecedented incident highlighted the sharp rise in tensions which has been sparked by the advance of Sunni extremists in the northern Golan Heights, right on Israel’s doorstep. As Syrian rebel groups, chiefly Al-Nusra and Islamic State (ISIS), have pushed back troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, they have increasingly threatened Druze communities in the south of the war-torn country. Twenty Syrian Druze were killed in a recent attack by Al-Nusra fighters, who view the community as heretical. The Druze in Syria have supported Assad and continue to do so.

Continued Israeli army treatment of casualties from Syria without discrimination along faction lines means that the very fighters threatening to assault Druze communities in southern Syria could be receiving medical treatment in Israeli hospitals. This has angered some residents who live only a short distance south of the border.

All of this comes during a debate in Israel regarding how far the country should go to support the Druze in Israel and their Syrian brethren, who are renowned for their loyalty to the state and tradition of military service.

“I think it’s high time that Israel helps the Druze – or at least offers to,” reservist Major General Uzi Dayan, told a news briefing shortly before the rising tensions boiled over into violence. 

Dayan argued that there were three reasons for the Jewish state to act: firstly “they need it – they are under an existential threat;” secondly Israel has a commitment to its Druze population who have served the country loyally for decades and are in turn committed to their relatives across the border; and thirdly it is in Israel’s interests to maintain a key ally on its northern border who is resistant to the expansion of aggressive jihadist factions. All three of these factors, Dayan stressed, represent moral and strategic reasons for Israel to take action.

“We can help them because they can help themselves,” Dayan said, explaining that the Druze were like Israelis in that they simply wanted to be given the tools necessary to do the job they were otherwise capable of. Weapons, training and logistics, not full Israeli intervention, would enable the Jewish state to bolster an ally on a hostile border – a border which was once quiet, Dayan said.

The former advisor to two Prime Ministers dismissed any notion that the old structure of the Middle East – the pre-Arab Spring arrangement – could be returned to the region. In an unpredictable environment, Dayan said, Israel could not foretell the future, but it could influence it.

Recent tensions on the border have also highlighted that the Druze are not a single homogeneous group. Although Druze within Israel are well known for their commitment to serve in the Israeli military, where they do conscription at a higher proportion to their fellow Jewish citizens, this is only true of those living within Israel’s 1948 borders. Many in communities which live in the Golan Heights, acquired by Israel in 1967, have remained loyal to the Syrian regime. Only a small minority have taken on Israeli citizenship and served in the country’s military.

Druze living in the Golan Heights have maintained a limbo existence since 1967,  Mordechai Nisan, from the Hebrew University, told The Media Line. Due to a lack of certainty on any future status of the Golan Heights the community has maintained its neutrality towards Israel. If the Druze living in Israel were certain that they would become a permanent part of the state then it is likely that the communities there would integrate, over time, and that its young men would begin to serve in the military, Nisan said.

The role of the community’s men in the Israeli security apparatus was highlighted by the death of a Druze police officer in November, who died of his injuries following a shootout in which he killed one of two terrorists conducting an attack on a Jerusalem Synagogue.

“The martial spirit of the Druze has been part of their character since they appeared on the historic stage,” Nisan said. “They are clearly a proud fighting people – their young men grow up with weapons in their hands and their communities are built on mountains,” Nisan explained, suggesting that the Druze belief in reincarnation diminished a fear of dying in combat.

Centuries of living as a minority surrounded by more powerful religious creeds has encouraged the community to maintain its martial edge. It has also taught Druze to espouse loyalty to whichever state they live within and traditionally they have not sought to create a country of their own, as other minorities such as the Kurds have.

Nisan explained that a commitment to the authority of the state is part of the community’s creed and has generally been as true of Druze in Syria as their coreligionists in Israel. “We sometimes think that there is a special relationship between Jews and the Druze – regarding Moses and Jethro,” Nisan said, referencing Moses's father-in-law from the Bible, who is the primary prophet in the Druze faith. But this is not solely directed towards Israel, he said, “They show loyalty to any country which respects their rights.”

The Druze religion, which is secretive and closed to outsiders, is heavily based on Islam but also takes strong influences from Judaism, ancient Greek philosophy and Indian religions.

All of the Druze leadership – both political and religious – have condemned the attacks on a military ambulance, Dr. Fawaz Kamal, the former head of the Arabic department at the Government Press Office, told The Media Line. Kamal, who is Druze himself, pointed out that the community’s spiritual leader in Israel, Sheikh Moafaq Tarif, criticized the attack and said that “An individual shouldn’t act like this without following the advice of the leadership.”

An assault on a medical convoy is especially problematic, Kamal added, as in Druze tradition followers are compelled to help the wounded.

Although the attack was unjustified, the reason for the Druze community’s anger was quite apparent, Kamal said. Al-Nusra fighters are posing a clear danger to the Druze communities just a stone’s throw from the border whilst at the same time “hundreds of their fighters” have been given medical treatment by the Israeli army. As few Syrian civilians come close to the Israeli border, those being treated are mostly fighters, Kamal said. The Druze know this, Kamal explained, because many of the doctors working in the hospitals treating the fighters are from the community.

Beyond the humanitarian issue, officials say Israel has an incentive to treat individuals from groups like Al-Nusra, in an attempt to recruit them as informants and to expand the country’s intelligence understanding of events on the ground in Syria.

As the war in Syria pushes deeper into its fourth year the regional implications for its neighbors continue to be felt, this time by Israel as its northern border once again heats up. Just like the Yazidis and the Kurds before, the Druze have found themselves spotlighted by the sectarian nature of the conflict which has not been kind to the area's many minorities.

This has implications for the Jewish state and the Druze population living within its borders – a relationship already complicated by the unresolved status of the Golan Heights.

But if Israel is unsure how to act, the Druze – both Israeli citizens and permanent residents living in the Golan – apparently are not.

Druze are already helping their coreligionists in Syria anyway they can – politically, financially and with humanitarian aid. Many can be seen standing on the hills looking through binoculars into Syrian at the plight of their brothers. The situation might be sensitive, Kamal admits, but still, most of the young men among the Druze villages are ready to go into Syria and to fight on behalf of Syria's president  – many happily making use of their experience from the Israeli army.

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