In a move aimed at staking a claim on the Israeli Golan Heights, Syria’s President says he will grant citizenship to the area’s Druze residents.
Syrian President Bashar Assad announced the plan, according to a state-run newspaper, in order to highlight his claim that “the Syrian citizens in the occupied Golan belonging to the homeland, mother Syria, and the rejection of Israeli identity.”
Israel annexed the Golan Heights in the 1980s, after Syria lost the area to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.
The Druze religion requires loyalty to the state in which one resides. Many Druze serve in the IDF, fighting and dying for the Jewish state. Most Druze live in Syria and Lebanon.
With intermittent talk from politicians about giving away the Golan Heights to Syria in the future, however, the Druze community has become fertile ground for anti-Israel activity. Local Druze activists claim that the Golan will one day be under Syrian sovereignty and threaten those who serve in the IDF that they will then be put on trial and punished.
Druze leaders in the Golan were quoted by the Maariv daily newspaper Tuesday saying they reject the offer of Syrian citizenship. “I am an Israeli citizen, and I am obligated to the State of Israel,” local council leader Atar Batchish said.
Hussam Farahat, head of the Bukata city council, said: “We live in Israel, and we are loyal to the country we live in...We live here in honor and honor the state.”
Batchish explained, however, that some Druze might take up the offer, “because they are afraid that someday the Syrians will again rule the Golan.” An additional consideration is the assumption that there will be no negative consequences meted out by Israel for accepting Syrian citizenship.
Druze MK Sayid Nafa said publicly that he supports the move by Syria. Nafa replaced MK Azmi Bishara on the radical Israeli-Arab Balad Party list when Bishara fled Israel due to allegations of treason. Nafa, who recently made an illegal visit to Syria with 330 senior Druze religious members, called Assad’s offer “a wise step” that demonstrated Syria’s support for those living in the “occupied Golan.”
There is reportedly a steep rise in efforts by Druze religious leaders to reduce service in the IDF and even renounce Israeli citizenship. Yediot Acharonot reported in February that major social boycotts have been launched, banning marriage, business relationships and even friendship with Druze who have accepted Israeli citizenship.
MK Majalli Whbee (Kadima) blasted MK Nafa following the latter’s illegal trip, saying he represents “marginal extremists who do not represent the overwhelming majority of the Druze community in Israel.” He also called upon the government to take harsher measures against such trends. “The state is hiding its head in the sand and not doing enough to cut down subversive activities,” he said.
It is unclear whether Druze loyalty is shifting due to anti-Israel sentiments, or due to an increasingly widespread assumption that the Israeli government will surrender the Golan Heights to the Syrian dictatorship. During the Second Lebanon War, the all-Druze Herev Battalion killed at least 20 Hizbullah guerillas and reported no injuries.