Who Are the Druse in the Israeli-Controlled Golan Heights?
A rocket strike in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on Saturday that killed 12 children and teenagers in a Druse Arab village has put a focus on the Druse, an Arabic-speaking religious minority.
Israel and the United States blamed the strike in Majdal Shams on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon. Hezbollah denied responsibility. The United States and Israel cited the type of weapon 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 Arab Druse communities in Israel 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 Jesus, John the Baptist, 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 Israel. 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 Israel?
There are about 150,000 Druse in northern Israel and the Golan Heights. This tiny community has two distinct elements with different approaches to participation in Israeli life and institutions.
Many of the Arabic-speaking Druse in Israel identify as Israeli. 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 Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel annexed much of it in 1981. Most of the world views this area as Israeli-occupied Syrian territory, though former President Donald J. Trump recognized Israeli 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 an uptick in requests for Israeli citizenship.
What is the legal status of the Israeli Druse?
The Druse are widely viewed as a kind of model minority in Israel because of their longstanding engagement with the state and participation in Israeli institutions. They have been recognized as a religious minority, distinct from Christian and Muslim Arabs in Israel, since 1957.
But many Israeli Druse in recent years have felt increasingly alienated by the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right governing coalition.
In 2018, Israel passed a law that defined the right to national self-determination as being “unique to the Jewish people.” It omitted any mention of the principle of equality enshrined in Israel’s 1948 Declaration of Independence, which ensured “complete equality of social and political rights” for “all its inhabitants” no matter their religion, race or sex. 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 petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court for changes, arguing that it created “race-based discrimination.” But the law remains in place.
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