President Aoun distances himself from the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel
President Joseph Aoun is shown shaking hands with Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif, the Spiritual leader off the Druze community in Israel
The Media Office of President Joseph Aoun tried to distance the president from a photo that circulated by media outlets on Sunday, showing President Joseph Aoun, shaking hands with Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif, the Spiritual leader off the Druze community in Israel
The Media Office statement read, 'As President Aoun was heading to his seat this morning for the first papal mass of Pope Leo XIV, a Druze cleric participating in the mass shook his hand. The President of the Republic does not know him and has never met him before.'
The statement continued: 'It was later revealed that he was Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif, the Druze spiritual leader in Israel. The Israeli Broadcasting Authority deliberately distributed the photo with a caption that contradicted the truth.'
The Media Office noted that such 'suspicious practices are typical of Israeli media outlets during similar international meetings, and they do not negate the truth of the official Lebanese position in general and President Aoun's position in particular.' The statement concluded by stating that 'there is no need to promote such lies and serve the Israeli enemy, so clarification is necessary.'
Sheikh ( Aql) Muwaffaq Tarif, the top spiritual leader of the Druze community in present day Israel is one of the most outspoken clerics in defense of the Druze community both in Israel and Syria
Sami Haddad , a Lebanese Political analyst told Ya Libnan. 'I don't know why all the fuss about a simple handshake , people like President Aoun do not have to know everyone that shakes their hand, unless he is trying to distance himself from the Druze spiritual leader for fear of being criticized by Hezbollah for shaking hands with someone from Israel'
Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif, known as Sheikh al Aql of the Druze community in Israel inherited the position from his grandfather Sheikh Amin Tarif in 1993 .
The Tarif family is the most prominent within the Druze community and has been playing a key role in Palestine for hundreds of years even during Ottoman empire .
Sheikh Tarif is a graduate of the Higher School for Druze Religious Studies in
Khalwat al-Bayada
, near Hasbayya Lebanon, the central
sanctuary
, and
theological
school of the the
Druze
community where all Druze Scholars converge during religious occasions . He also graduated from the Faculty of Law of the
Ono Academic College
, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the
University of Haifa
in 2010.
Part of the article was translated from Arabic ( El Nashra)
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