Lebanon’s Druze, Israel and the Majdal Shams massacre
The killing of children in a football pitch in the Golan Heights has put the spotlight back on the Druze, who are divided by a border never recognised after the 1967 war. Lebanon has asked the UN to open an independent investigation into the incident. Lebanon’s Druze community warns against attempts by Israel to split from its Arab identity and exploit the tragedy to sow discord with Shias.
Beirut (AsiaNews) – Without supporting the war of attrition started by Hezbollah against northern Israel on 8 October, the Druze community in Lebanon, as a whole, is united against the threats made by the Jewish state against the pro-Iranian party, accused in connection with last week's bombing in Majdel Shams (11,500 inhabitants), a town in the Golan heights, a territory conquered by Israel in 1967, during the Seven Day War, and annexed in 1981. Lebanese Druze are also against the manipulation of this tragedy, which the Jewish state is using to sow discord between Druze and Shias and obtain the allegiance of a community still opposed to the illegal annexation, which violates United Nations Resolutions 242 and 338, to which only former US President Donald Trump has lent legitimacy.
According to former Lebanese minister Ghazi Aridi, more than 80 per cent of the 23,000 or so Druze in the Golan have rejected Israeli citizenship. The issue remains taboo in a community that is strongly united religiously, but territorially fragmented. The vast majority of Druze live in Arab countries, while only 150,000 Druze live in Israel, 2 per cent of the total population.
Behind the tragedy
Who is really behind the tragedy of Majdel Shams, which left 12 dead, aged 10 to 16, with about thirty wounded, on a football pitch? Regardless of accusations and counter-accusations, it is speculated that it could be a miscalculation, either a failed Hezbollah launch or an Israeli interceptor missile that blew up falling back on the ground.
Israel claims the rocket was Iranian-made. However, Lebanon has asked the UN to open an investigation to determine responsibility for the strike.
UNDOF,[*] the UN force tasked with monitoring the disengagement in the Golan Heights, must check the rocket wreckage, insisted Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, who has joined efforts to defuse the dangerous tensions caused by the tragedy that might lead to a military escalation between Israel and Hezbollah.
Druze united behind Jumblatt
“Putting aside personal and partisan rivalries, which have become secondary, the Druze community in Lebanon has aligned itself with the leadership of Walid Jumblatt in this matter," said Ghazi Aridi.
“Targeting civilians is unacceptable and reprehensible, whether in occupied Palestine, the occupied Golan, or South Lebanon," Jumblatt wrote in a statement, but “history and current events by the Israeli enemy are full of massacres it has committed and continues to commit against civilians.” In a reference to Israeli efforts to win over Golan Druze from Syria, Jumblatt stressed that Israel “has long sought to start conflicts and fragment the region.”
Ghazi Aridi stressed how the Israeli prime minister, who came to offer his condolences to the families and lay a wreath on the graves of the victims, was booed on Monday by several dozen young Syrians, shouting "Go away, murderer!"
Druze Sheikh Akl Sami Abi el-Mouna and Sheikh Abu Youssef Amin el-Sayegh, one of the spiritual elders of the Druze community in Lebanon, urged the latter to remain true to its values and not be influenced by attempts to exploit this tragic event to create internal divisions.
Sheikh Sayegh warned, in particular, against efforts to create divisions. "The Druze community has always been a pillar of Arabism," he said.
MP Wael Bou Faour, a member of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), followed Jumblatt's example. “The Israeli occupation state mourns the child martyrs of the occupied Syrian Golan — this is the height of obscenity and hypocrisy," he said. He blamed Israel for using the Druze as a pawn in its overall strategy.
“Today, they are mourning to sow discord between them (Golan Druze) and their Arab and Islamic brothers, while the war criminal Netanyahu wants to use the Golan tragedy to torpedo any negotiations, and continues his aggressive war against the Palestinian people, after this shameful comedy in Congress," he added, referring to Netanyahu's address to the US Congress last Wednesday.
Talal Arslane, head of the Lebanese Democratic Party, a pro-Syrian Druze party, also spoke about the incident, calling it a failed attempt to separate the Syrian Golan from its natural geographical ties and Syrian Arab identity.
“The Golan will not fall into the trap of Israel's plan to pretend to protect minorities in order to protect its artificial borders," he said. He reiterated the community's rejection of Israel's actions, reaffirming its commitment to resist until the occupied lands are fully liberated.
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[*] United Nations Disengagement Observer Force.
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