Leaders of the Druze community in the Syrian Golan Heights of Hader have reached the conclusion that they would like their communities to be annexed to Israel following the collapse of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
"What is left for us is to be annexed to Israel," they said, adding that annexation to Israel is "a much lesser evil than the evil coming our way."
The second, greater evil, they said, "might take our women, might take our daughters. They might take our houses. And we are with those who preserve our dignity."
Omar Alhariri, an independent journalist and human rights activist from Syria, responded to these reports, writing on X: "The Druze people of the Hader area in the village of Jabal al-Sheikh, in a meeting of the city’s notables, asked the Israeli occupation forces to enter their area."
"Accordingly, we call on the free sheikhs and notables of Sweida to issue a statement in response to the request of this small group and to reject the Israeli occupation. The people of Sweida are the foundation of the Druze community and the first free people, and no group has the right to abandon any part of free Syria. Let us not forget the baseness of the Israeli occupation in playing on the chord of persecution of minorities."
In 1974, when Israel and Syria agreed to a ceasefire and the creation of a "buffer zone" between the two countries, many Druze families found themselves split between two countries hostile to each other, with some members on the Israeli side of the border and others on the Syrian side. Marriages continue across the border, but women who exit their home country in order to marry are unable to return. The forced division has led to much resentment and anger among the northern Druze population.