Druze community, divided between Syria and Israel, has fleeting connection during conflict

Australia Broadcast Center

2 days ago

The small towns in the northern tip of the Israeli occupied Golan Heights aren't usually susceptible to traffic jams.
Clinging to the side of Mount Hermon, the narrow and winding streets of Majdal Shams can be challenging to navigate in quieter times.
But on Wednesday night, it was clogged with cars, trucks and quad bikes, as the sounds of joyous celebrations echoed up and down the valley where the Druze village sits.
The focal point was a gate, in a kilometres long razor wire-topped fence, which had been forced open earlier in the day by hundreds of members of the Druze community — a religious minority spread across Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
For the first time in decades, Israeli Druze poured through the fence — first by foot, then by car.
Syrian Druze made the opposite journey.
Heartwarming family reunions decades in the making ensued for a number of hours, on both sides of the fence.
As night fell, hundreds of people lined the streets cheering and chanting as groups returned through the gate.
The fact the event occurred at all is notable.
So too is the fact that Israeli authorities, known for their vice-like control of borders, allowed it to happen — and indeed stood and watched it play out.
The fence was breached as Israel launched extensive air strikes across Syria.
Many of the Druze who'd pushed their way through had done so trying to encourage Israel to go even further.
Less than 24 hours later, as Israeli jets resumed their focus on Gaza instead of the country's northern neighbours, the gate was secured.
Life was returning to normal.
But the impact of the bombing raids across Syria was only just being realised.
Through the noise and walls of the colourful Druze flags, Zeid Abu Jabal emerged from the area near the gate.
He was beaming.
"I met my brother from the other side from Sweida, from Jabal Arab, whom I have not seen for more than 50 years," he told the ABC.
"The meeting took place here, when the young men went inside [Syria], there was an opportunity for my brother to cross [back into the Golan] with people he knows who came here from the other side.
"There was food and drinks and we met them and we wanted them to stay with us, but unfortunately, we were informed that at 10pm they had to cross the border and go back to where they came from."
It was hard for Zeid to hide his smile. But, his happiness was still tempered by fear and frustration.
This reunion with his brother had only occurred because of violent clashes between the Druze and Bedouin communities over the border, and Israel's decision to get involved in the conflict.
The clashes began last weekend when a Druze merchant was reportedly kidnapped, sparking more violence between the groups and triggering the Syrian government forces to deploy to the Sweida region in southern Syria.
As of this morning the conflict's death toll had soared to nearly 600, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Zeid blamed the new Syrian leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa for the situation.
"Al-Sharaa, more than once, found groups to strike our Druze brethren, and unfortunately this time was an attack on our honour and our elderly leaders, on our children and on our women," he said.
"Al-Sharaa is one of the terror groups that is acting to exterminate the Druze in Sweida and Jabal Al-Arab.
"If he had any peaceful intention, Syria would not have reached this situation, Assad before him was unjust towards his people, unfortunately what we see from Al-Sharaa is worse than what we saw from Assad."
Proudly displaying the Druze flag, Wade Sabag said he had seen videos on social media showing the fighting in Syria.
"I get so angry, and the feeling of that I can't do anything here because we are in different countries," he said.
"It's so bad."
It is that sentiment Israel tapped into when it launched its attacks inside Syria, insisting it was protecting the Syrian Druze in solidarity with its own Druze population.
Benjamin Netanyahu's willingness to flex his country's military muscle has been clear for the world to see in recent times.
While the war in Gaza stretched into its 21st month, Israel sparked a 12-day conflict with Iran.
Israeli forces continue to strike inside Lebanon despite a ceasefire, repeatedly attacked Yemen's Houthi rebels, and have intensified their campaign against claimed militants in the occupied West Bank.
As Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's regime was toppled by Islamist rebel forces in December, Israel sent troops and tanks over the border into what was once the buffer zone along the border with the Golan Heights.
It's since moved beyond that zone and attacked targets in Syria, including the Ministry of Defence in Damascus.
Mr Netanyahu said it was in response to Syrian forces moving south of Damascus and "massacring Druze" in what was supposed to be a "demilitarised" area.
"This was something we could not accept in any way," he said
Mr Netanyahu said Israel's strikes had forced Syrian forces to retreat to Damascus.
That's where Israel wants them to stay, and Mr Netanyahu has indicated he's prepared to use force again to ensure they do.
"We will not allow Syrian army forces to enter the region south of Damascus," he said.
"We have taken action, and we will continue to take action as necessary."
Since the Israeli strikes, a ceasefire was negotiated and most fighting between Israeli and Syrian government forces has stopped.
While Syrian government forces had mostly left the southern province of Sweida after days of clashes with Druze militias, the fighting hasn't fully ceased.
According to Syrian state media, Druze militiamen have attacked Sunni Bedouin communities.
A military commander for the Bedouin said their fighters had launched a new offensive in Sweida province against Druze fighters and that the truce there only applied to government forces, Reuters reported.
The Druze in Israel are generally seen as supportive of the country.
However, many of those in the Golan have closer ties to Syria.
Long time Druze activist Salman Fakhreddin has been campaigning against Israeli occupation for decades, and has been jailed by Israeli authorities 13 times as a result.
"A decade before [these attacks] the Druze were massacred [in Syria] and the Israelis didn't do anything," he said.
"What motivates them, it is not human rights, it's hegemony and occupation."
He described Israel as being locked in "an eternal crisis" — occupying land, but demanding peace at the same time.
The allegations from Salman Fakhreddin tally with those coming from the new Syrian leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa — a man he has little positive to say about.
The Islamist leader-turned-president has been talking up the prospects of uniting his country, even as concerns abound about the ideology of the forces he led to power and the risk they would target Syria's minority groups.
In the seven months since he toppled dictator Bashar Al-Assad, there have been a number of deadly attacks — including against Alawites and, now, the Druze.
"Open war with Israel at the expense of the Druze people and their security is destabilising Syria and the entire region," Al-Sharaa said in a televised speech overnight.
"Israel resorted to extensive targeting of civilian and governmental facilities, to undermine efforts, which greatly complicated the situation, and pushed matters to a large-scale escalation.
"If it weren't for the effective intervention of American, Arab and Turkish mediation, which saved the region from an unknown fate."
The Syrian president's reference to the US in his comments was telling — not least because of the White House's influence over Israel's actions.
Just weeks ago, it was Donald Trump who lifted crippling sanctions on Syria in a bid to help the country rebuild. That was a move pushed by Türkiye and Saudi Arabia.
Mohammed Bin Salman, the Saudi Crown Prince, was the one to introduce the US president to Ahmed Al-Sharaa, while he visited Riyadh.
"Young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter. He's got a real shot at pulling it together," President Trump told reporters after the meeting on Air Force One.
The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sought to downplay Israel's strikes this week by saying it was a "misunderstanding" with Syria. But the ramifications are significant.
One of Donald Trump's major goals is the expansion of the Abraham Accords, the title of the program promoting normalisation of ties between Israel and Arab nations — relations that have traditionally been hostile
The jewel in that foreign policy crown would be getting Saudi Arabia to sign on — a task that could become more difficult after Israel's strikes in Syria.
So too any sort of normalisation with Syria, which had been mooted for weeks.
For all the questioning of Israel's motives, the decision by the Netanyahu government and the IDF have support even amongst some of the prime minister's most staunch opponents.
"We have a strong commitment to the Druze here in Israel, and therefore also for the Druzes in Lebanon and in Syria," Israeli leader of the Democrats Yair Golan told the ABC.
"And in both unstable countries, we need to be in high awareness to what is happening there.
"I think it came only too late, and the minute we understand that these people, our allies and our citizens, are under threat, we need to do something in order to secure them and in order prevent further massacres."
A former government minister, and member of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, took that a step further.
"One can not play the game with this ISIS guy called Al-Sharaa," Druze politician Ayoob Kara argued.
"He is dressed up like Little Red Riding Hood, with a tie and his trimmed beard."
The talk of the threat coming from Syria prompted Israeli forces to start erecting concrete barriers on Thursday, along the very fenceline they had watched Druze breach the day before.
Siham Safadi was watching on.
She had welcomed family from the Syrian side of the fence the day earlier, and was preparing to say goodbye.
"This fence that has been established I understand it is for security but it has closed our heart," she told the ABC.
"It has closed all Majdal Shams, all the Golan Heights, it causes us pain.
"It's a cement wall, they have turned our hearts into cement."