Druze community leaders in southern Syria spoke in favor of being annexed to Israel’s Golan Heights, amid fears of retribution by al-Qaeda linked Sunni Islamic extremist rebels. Hated by most Muslims, Druze are ethnically Arab and Arabic speaking and their monotheistic religion incorporates many beliefs from Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
The latest religious minority to be caught in the Syrian crossfire are the Druze, who have long enjoyed the protection of the Assad regime, but could soon find themselves under attack from the new HTS so-called “rebels” – formerly linked to Al-Qaeda offshoot, the Al Nusra Front. In 2015, an Al-Nusra commander accused the Druze of being “kuffar” (infidels) before ordering the slaughter of many of them.
Syria’s estimated 700,000 Druze have no protection should the HTS terrorist groups who overthrew Assad turn their attention to them, as they surely will against Christians and Kurds in Syria.
United with Israel For more than four decades, the Israeli military has had a primarily Druze infantry unit called the Herev, or sword battalion. This is in contrast with Israeli Arabs, who are exempt from military service. About six-in-ten Druze men included in our survey say they have served (45%) or currently are serving (15%) in the Israeli military.
Druze community leaders in southern Syria spoke in favor of being annexed to Israel’s Golan Heights overnight Thursday, speaking amid fears of retribution by Sunni Islamist rebels who recently toppled the Assad regime, to which they have been historically loyal.
According to unverified videos posted to social media, the pronouncement was made during a council meeting of six Druze villages held in Hader in the Jabal al-Sheikh region on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.
A translation of the video quoted a local Druze representative as asking, “What’s our fate, my brothers?” with the crowd responding: “Israel.”
He continues: “In the name of all the people of Hader, and if anyone objects, please say,” with no objections heard. “If we have to choose, we will choose the lesser evil, and even if it’s considered evil to ask to be annexed to the [Israeli] Golan. But it’s a much lesser evil than the evil coming our way. … That evil might take our women, might take our daughters. They might take our homes.”
أهالي حضر في الجولان السوري المحرر يطالبون بضمهم الى اسرائيل . pic.twitter.com/eMQBDrLw65
— مركز دراسات الازمات nidal hamade (@nidalhamade2) December 13, 2024
Let’s see how long it takes for the evil Muslums to start slaughtering the non Muslums.
Hardly a strong sign of morality coming from them.
These Druze are saying Israel is “the lesser of two evils”, when comparing them to the Syrian Rebels.
These Druze in Syria are likely no friends of Israel…they just don’t want their heads chopped off.
I know we’ll take anything we can get in terms of support at the moment…but this is them supporting themselves…not Israel.
Many of the Druze in Israel hate Jews.
Yet many of them proudly serve in the IDF.
Not likely the ones that would be annexed from Syria though