Who Are the Druse in the Israeli-Controlled Golan Heights?

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Who Are the Druse in the ********-Controlled Golan Heights?

A rocket strike in the ********-controlled Golan Heights on Saturday that ******* 12 children and teenagers in a Druse ***** village has put a focus on the Druse, an Arabic-speaking religious *********.

******* and the ******* States blamed the strike in Majdal Shams on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon. Hezbollah denied responsibility. The ******* States and ******* cited the type of ******* used and the location in Lebanon from which it was fired as evidence of Hezbollah’s involvement.

The strike highlighted the unique and delicate role of the ***** Druse communities in ******* and the region.

Who are the Druse?

The Druse are a religious group that practices a deliberately mysterious offshoot of Islam, developed in the 11th century in Egypt, that contains elements of Christianity, Hinduism, Gnosticism and other philosophies. The sect recognizes the prophets of the Abrahamic faiths, including ******, John the ********, Muhammad and Moses, and reveres Greek philosophers like Plato and Socrates.

Druse doctrine is unknown even to the majority of the Druse community and has been an enigma to religious scholars. Only a select group of male and female Druse initiates, about 20 percent of the population, are taught the intricacies of the religion — known as “the wisdom” — and they are sworn to secrecy.

The Druse are monotheists who believe in reincarnation and emphasize everyday spirituality over texts and ceremony. They do not welcome converts and frown upon intermarriage.

Where do the Druse live?

There are more than one million Druse across the Middle East, mostly in Syria and Lebanon, with some also in Jordan and *******. Those in Druse communities, wherever they may be, generally tend to participate in national civic and political life and serve in the local military, despite maintaining a distinct culture and religious practices.

How does the Druse community relate to the state of *******?

There are about 150,000 Druse in northern ******* and the Golan Heights. This tiny community has two distinct elements with different approaches to participation in ******** life and institutions.

Many of the Arabic-speaking Druse in ******* identify as ********. They are drafted into and serve in the nation’s military, and participate in national politics.

About 20,000 Druse live in the Golan Heights, a territory once held by Syria that was captured by ******* during the 1967 Six-Day War. ******* annexed much of it in 1981. Most of the world views this area as ********-occupied Syrian territory, though former President Donald J. Trump recognized ******** sovereignty there in 2019. And some of the Druse in the Golan Heights, including in the town hit by the rocket on Saturday, still consider themselves Syrian.

Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, however, there has been a slight shift among this community, and in recent years there has been

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

for ******** citizenship.

What is the legal status of the ******** Druse?

The Druse are widely viewed as a kind of model ********* in ******* because of their longstanding engagement with the state and

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. They have been recognized as a religious *********, distinct from ********** and ******* ****** in *******, since 1957.

But many ******** Druse in recent years have felt

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

by the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right governing coalition.

In 2018, ******* passed a law that defined the right to national self-determination as being “unique to the ******* people.” It omitted any mention of the principle of equality enshrined in *******’s 1948

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, which ensured “complete equality of social and political rights” for “all its inhabitants” no matter their religion, race or ****. And it downgraded Arabic from an official language to one with a “special status,” leaving many in the Druse community feeling betrayed.

Druse lawmakers unsuccessfully

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

for changes, arguing that it created “race-based discrimination.” But the law ******** in place.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Druse #IsraeliControlled #Golan #Heights

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up