V Israel’s Druze community has been shattered by the deaths of 12 children aged ten to 16 who were killed when a Hezbollah rocket landed on a football field in Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights on Saturday. Dozens more people were injured in the deadliest attack on Israel since October 7 and the most serious escalation along the northern border.
As Druze leaders neared the end of two days of mourning, questions were being asked about what will happen next to a community reeling from tragedy and in a war that teeters on the verge of even greater violence. The mayor of Majdal Shams, Wael Mograbi, told the JC that he has a clear message for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “We need peace in the Golan Heights and the Middle East. Please, we don’t want to see a war, please give us freedom.”
Unlike other northern villages, Majdal Shams had not been evacuated after hostilities broke out with Hezbollah. Eman Safady, a member of the Druze community who lost a family member in the strike at the weekend, explained: “They did not evacuate because, by the wisdom of their bible, the community were told [by leaders] not to leave their house because historically the community has been hurt and attacked.”
Not long after the war began, the head of Israel’s Druze community, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, said the community would not leave their homes in northern Israel but would stay and defend themselves. Now the town’s mayor is keen to see the government invest in security. “We need to build more shelters here,” he asserted, explaining that several Golan villages had no cover from the frequent blasts.
“We need a medical centre because we don’t have one and now, with 12 dead children, we need psychological help... We have to sit with the government in Israel and they need to listen to all the things we need.”
Druze have had a presence in the region for a thousand years. The monotheistic Arab sect was influenced by Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Greek philosophy, Eastern mysticism and Hinduism and their prophets include Jesus, Mohammed and Moses. Early followers were in such fear of persecution that they lived among the big three religions while keeping their practices private and began to identify themselves in public about 1,000 years ago. Eighty per cent of the community do not have access to holy writings and do not attend religious meetings. The 20 per cent with access to the texts are considered holy elders and control religious and communal life. The close-knit community do not permit intermarriage and refuses converts. The total number of Druze is estimated between 800,000 and one million, around 80 per cent of whom live in Lebanon and Syria and 10 per cent in Israel, with a small number in Jordan. In Israel, the community are mostly located in towns near the northern border, where they have been in Hezbollah’s firing line.
More than 20,000 Druze live in the Golan Heights. Under President Trump in 2019 the US recognised Israeli sovereignty over the land, but much of the international community defines the region as occupied, as do many Druze.
Israeli Druze are fiercely patriotic, but Druze in the Golan have a complicated identity, with most identifying as Syrian. They were offered Israeli citizenship after annexation, but many rejected it and were given residency cards. None of those killed on Saturday was Israeli.
The Druze “are loyal to wherever they have been”, Safady explained. “So when they lived in Syria, they were loyal to Syria, not to Assad, but to the country.”
The community fear that one day the Golan Heights could return to Syria and, if they accept Israeli citizenship, “Assad will blame them as traitors if they were Israeli”.
