The Media Line Ltd.
They regard Bashar Al-Asad as their leader; they hang Syrian flags in their homes; their mother tongue is Arabic, and they see Israel as an occupying nation. They are the Druze community, and they live in the Israeli-held Golan Heights.
For the past 25 years the Druze community in the Golan Heights has been demonstrating each year on February 14 at a place called the Shouting Hill, a few dozen meters from the Israeli-Syrian border. Although they stand on the Israeli side of the border, a passerby would probably think he had crossed the border. The Druze demonstrators carry large Syrian flags and pictures of the Syrian president as they communicate through loudspeakers with Syrian protesters standing on the opposite hill.
They are demonstrating against the Knesset s (Israeli parliament) decision of December 1981 to annex the occupied Golan Heights. The Golan was won from Syria during the 1967 War and was under Israeli military rule for 14 years. The annexation would have turned the Druze community living in the area into Israeli citizens. Most of the Druze refused to accept the Israeli identity cards and two months after the Golan Law was approved in the Knesset, the small Druze community began a six-month strike.
Approximately 100,000 Druze live in Israel, of whom 18,000 reside in the Golan. Unlike their brothers in the northern Israeli regions of the Galilee and the Karmel, the Druze in the Golan are faced with a grave predicament. The area in which they live might revert to Syria if negotiations with Israel resume. If that happens, the Golan Druze will become once again Syrian civilians and their behaviour vis-à-vis Israel – especially the behaviour of those who accepted Israel s identity cards – will be thoroughly examined by the Syrian regime.
The Druze follow a distinct religion which quit Islam in the 11th century. The new religion accepted believers for no more than 30 years (between 1017AC-1047AC) and then closed its doors. As a result, the Druze religion today is one of the smallest religions in the world. There are approximately 1 million followers of the religion, most of whom (almost 90 percent) live in Syria and Lebanon; around 10 percent reside in Israel.
Having been an oppressed minority in the countries they lived in for almost 10 centuries, the Druze adhered to a principle called taqiya. Generally, it meant that they assimilated into the surrounding societies and obeyed the ruling regime, while keeping their faith in the comfort of their homes.
The Druze in Israel s Galilee and Karmel regions did just the same. They completely assimilated into Israeli society and even joined the Israeli army. The Druze in the Golan, on the other hand, were presented with a sensitive political situation, whereby their current rulers could change anytime. This, probably for the first time in their history, made the taqiya principle unrealistic.
According to Prof. Gabriel Ben-Dor, one of Israel s leading experts on the Druze community, the latter s belief that the Golan might return to Syria, has led them not to identify with the State of Israel.
They do not feel as the [rest of the] Druze here [in Israel] do, and therefore they are really Syrian Druze, who happen to live on the Golan, says Ben-Dor.
Nuhad Safadi lives in Majdal Shams, the largest of the four Druze villages in the Golan. Nuhad was born in 1968; a few months after Israel occupied the Golan. Although she had never visited there, Nuhad regards Syria as her homeland and thus concurs with Ben-Dor.
Our identity is not Israeli, it is Syrian. The occupation was forced upon us, she says.
Nuhad grew up on her mother s stories about their large family in Syria.
She used to cry whenever she thought of them.
Nuhad s uncle and aunt from her mother s side live some 40 miles from Majdal Shams, in the Syrian village of Jaramana. With the border stretching a few dozen meters from her home, she understandably never saw them. Surprisingly, she was given a chance to renew her relations with them through her daughter, Hind.
Hind represents an anomaly in Israeli-Syrian relations. While each country regards the other as its sworn enemy, they allow Druze students from the Golan to study in Syria. Hind began studying dentistry at Damascus University two years ago. On her way to Damascus she paid an emotional visit to her family in Jaramana, a family she had never seen before. The voices she heard over the years via the telephone materialized, and faces were attached to them.
When Nuhad sent Hind to Damascus, she asked her for one thing: Love Damascus for me. Nuhad was excited when her daughter first arrived in Damascus. She had felt as though she had sent a part of herself with Hind.
We have a deep emotional connection with our capital, Nuhad explains.
Six years after the Golan was occupied by Israel, the 1973 War broke out. Syrian and Egyptian forces attacked Israel by surprise from two fronts. A small group of pro-Syrian Druze from the Golan aided the Syrian forces by supplying them with information it gathered in Israel. One member of this group was I ssam Safadi, who later on married Nuhad. I ssam was caught and arrested. He sat in prison for 11 years before he was released. To this day, Nuhad says proudly, people in Majdal Shams remember I ssam s bravery and respect him for it.
Yaniv Berman, The Media Line Ltd. Visit www.themedialine.org for video, audio and written pieces concerning the Middle East. For information, contact [email protected]
