Fearing that instability in Syria will evolve into persecution, some Druze communities in the Syrian part of the Golan Heights are asking for Israel to annex their towns.
Videos have emerged from the village of Hader begging Israel to intervene, according to the Jerusalem Post.
In the videos, one man tells a crowd, “In the name of all the people of Hader, and if anyone objects, please say… if we have to choose, we will choose the lesser evil – to be annexed to the (Israeli) Golan!”
“The fate of Hader is the fate of the surrounding villages, we want to ask to join our kin in the Golan, to be free from injustice and oppression,” the speaker said.
“We agree, we agree!” the crowd in the video said.
As noted by the Harvard Divinity School, Druze adherents do not consider themselves Muslim, even though they are Arabs. The Druze consider Jesus and Mohammed to be prophets.
“If we have to choose, we will choose the lesser evil,” the speaker said, according to the Times of Israel. “And even if it’s considered evil to ask to be annexed to the [Israeli] Golan, it’s a much lesser evil than the evil coming our way.”
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the lead group in the coalition of rebels that toppled Syria’s government, has deep Islamic roots, but has preached moderation as it swept to power.
“That evil might take our women, might take our daughters, they might take our houses,” the speaker said.
Should Israel annex Druze communities?
Yes: 93% (80 Votes)
No: 7% (6 Votes)
“Bashar al-Assad left,” he said. “What do we have left? Nothing.”
The speaker indicated he was speaking for more than ust one village.
“How many of us have died?” he asks. “We’ve given enough. We’re not willing to offer anything more.”
The Druze villages stood aside from the conflict that has engulfed Syria, remaining largely loyal to the Assad regime, the Jerusalem Post noted.
“These villages were in fact an enclave surrounded by rebel groups, most of them Sunni Islamists,” Yusri Khaizran, senior lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Shalem College, said.
He said Israel has tried to carve out a balance.
“For years Israel faced a conflict: on the one hand, it sought to create a certain mechanism of understandings with rebel organizations in the Golan Heights; while on the other hand, Israel’s commitment to the Druze community in Israel prompted it to create a balancing equation, signaling to the Islamists that they will not be allowed to invade the Hader enclave and carry out violent mass massacres against the Druze.”
“The Druze were never an anti-Israeli actor. In Hader they know very well that the one who prevented rebels from entering their towns and ‘settling the score’ was Israel, and that this was made out of Israel’s commitment to the Druze community here,” he said.
There is a growing drive for Israel to annex the Druze areas of Syria. There are definitely some Druze leaders who want that to happen so they can be protected from a new government they fear. However, as you can see from this map, that would involve Israel governing an area well… https://t.co/g4SLHv5QGI
— Shaiel Ben-Ephraim (@academic_la) December 13, 2024
Khaizran said limited annexation might be possible.
“Recent developments, from the fall of the Assad regime to the decimation of Hezbollah, are certainly in Israel’s favor. The only Israeli concern should be of Turkish hegemony in Syria, but in terms of the ripple effects of these events, it is all the more empowering for Israel,” he said.
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