As Israel instrumentalizes Syria’s Druze, some fear ‘increased sectarianism’

JARAMANA/SUWAYDA — Syrians across the country took to the streets this week on the March 18 anniversary of the revolution to protest Israel’s resumption of the war on Gaza—as well as strikes on Syria and Lebanon. “Syria is free, free, Zionism get out,” chanted demonstrators in the country’s southern Druze-majority Suwayda province and in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, also known for its substantial Druze population.

The night before, Israel conducted more than 30 airstrikes in neighboring Daraa province, killing four civilians and injuring 18. 

On February 25, similar demonstrations were held in Jaramana and Suwayda city to denounce Israel’s military campaign in the southwestern provinces of Quneitra and Daraa. Jaramana and Suwayda—as well as Quneitra—are known for their significant populations of Druze, members of a religious minority that makes up three percent of Syria’s total population. 

Mufid Karbah, 43, a civil activist from Jaramana who is Druze, took part in the March 18 and February 25 demonstrations against Israel. “Israel until today is a country of occupation and killing,” he said, citing the ongoing war against Gaza and occupation of the West Bank. “Just as we were opposed to Iranian interference…we reject any Israeli interference in Syria.” 

As Israel has sought to expand its presence in Syrian territory, it has repeatedly issued statements portraying itself as a would-be protector of Syria’s Druze. On March 1, following clashes in Jaramana between local Druze factions and the central government’s general security forces, Tel Aviv threatened military intervention. 

“We are committed to our Druze brothers in Israel to do everything to prevent harm to their Druze brothers in Syria, and we will take all the steps required to maintain their safety,” Minister of Defense Israel Katz proclaimed in a statement on the same day. 

Last week, Katz said Syrian Druze would be allowed to cross the border and work in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. In past weeks, Israel has also sent humanitarian aid to Druze communities in southern Syria, according to its foreign ministry. On March 14, Tel Aviv authorized 100 Syrian Druze sheikhs to make a historic visit and meet with their counterparts in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

As Israel makes increasing overtures to Syria’s Druze, hate speech against the community has propagated, residents of Jaramana and Suwayda say, despite the efforts of many Druze activists to distance themselves from Israel.

‘Card for pressure’

“When [Israel] declared to the world that it would protect minorities, including the Druze, it wasn’t for the sake of the Druze,” civil and feminist activist Rula Abdulbaqi (a pseudonym), 40, told Syria Direct on condition of anonymity. Abdulbaqi participated in the protests against the Israeli intervention in Suwayda city’s central al-Karama (Dignity) Square in late February.

“We’re a pretext to implement Israel’s agenda and interests,” Abdulbaqi added. “Israel wants to take over the south to prevent the jihadi forces from being at its borders.” Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa (previously known by his nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Jolani) formerly led Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra. 

“In the end, Israel wants to protect its borders. It has asked for a demilitarized zone in Suwayda and Daraa. It wants to protect its borders not because it loves the Druze,” Adel Sharafuddin, a journalist based in Suwayda city, said.

In the days following the fall of the Assad regime, Israel took out most of Syria’s military arsenal, targeting military bases across the country. On February 23, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel would not allow the new Syrian army to “enter the area south of Damascus,” demanding the “demilitarization” of its southernmost provinces.

“We are a card for pressure,” Dyaa al-Abdullah, 52, echoed. Originally from Suwayda city, al-Abdullah was arrested and tortured several times by the Syrian regime—once in 2000 and again in 2011 for his participation in the Syrian revolution. 

But for both Abdulbaqi and al-Abdullah, it is not for Syria’s Druze to defend themselves from Israel’s attempts to use them as a political tool. “This is an internal Syrian issue, and it is the interim government’s responsibility to respond,” al-Abdullah said. 

After 14 years of revolution and calls for Syrian unity, it is not the “responsibility” of his community to respond, he added. After spending years in prison, he believes he has proven his patriotism.

“He [Netanyahu] who made those statements is responsible, we don’t need to justify our patriotism…we are not secessionists,” Abdulbaqi echoed. She has been a steadfast participant of the hirak, or protest movement, at Suwayda’s al-Karama Square. While protests started in 2023 to demand the fall of the Assad regime, they have continued on a weekly basis since it fell to respond to  shifting developments in the country.

‘Increased sectarianism’

“Statements by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are causing increased sectarianism against the Druze,” Sharafuddin, the journalist based in Suwayda city, said.

“There has been a type of hate [speech] by terrorist factions who speak in the name of Islam against the Druze because of his statements regarding secession and protection of the Druze,” he added. 

Sharafuddin cited comments on social media, such as Facebook and Telegram. For example, on March 13, a video was published by Al Jazeera showing the delivery of 10,000 food parcels, primarily to Suwayda, by Israel. One of the top comments read: “The Druze should know that the people who gave them this aid are the same ones who withheld it from the people of Gaza,” generalizing to the entire Druze population.

Another top comment called Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, one of the three highest Druze spiritual leaders in Syria, “an agent of Israel.” Al-Hijri has come under criticism in recent weeks not as a Druze religious figure in the context of his political stance opposing an agreement between Suwayda and the current government in Damascus. 

For political activist Basel Janbeh, 54, a Suwayda native, any rise in hate speech is less due to Israel and more to greater freedom of speech. “With the fall of the tyrant Bashar al-Assad and the rise of al-Jolani [al-Sharaa] to power, people experienced somewhat of a space for freedom, which led to a rise in hate speech,” he said.

“The Sunnis have come to rule after 54 years of repression and oppression but unfortunately they have fallen into the same trap…and practiced repression and oppression against the rest of the sects,” in his view.

For Ibrahim al-Khatib of My Home is Your Home—a Syrian civil society organization that works on peacebuilding—the hate speech has its foundations in the Assad regime. The regime positioned itself as the “protector of minorities” and proclaimed that the Druze were loyal to it, he explained. 

Suwayda province, unlike many parts of the country, never came under opposition control despite its strong anti-regime protest movement that began in August 2023. The Druze retained a degree of autonomy from the regime during the war, notably benefiting from a de facto exemption from conscription.

Read more: Suwayda’s movement endures post-Assad

“There is a tendency of many Syrians today to say that the Druze were followers of the former regime and incitement is based on this reason,” al-Khatib said.

In addition, “the former regime, the Assad regime, promoted the Druze as being separatists, that the Druze wanted to establish a state,” he added. This is despite Syrian Druze boasting nationalist figures such as Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, who resisted French rule and called for a united Syria, he said.

Anti-Druze incitement has been further compounded by Israeli statements in recent weeks, al-Khatib said. As a result, there is a perception that the Druze “want to separate from the Syrian homeland towards Israel, and this matter may lead us to very bad perceptions that lead to civil strife or even to…sectarian war or civil war.”

Aware of these risks, civil society organizations, like the Suwayda-based organization Balady, are working toward combating hate speech. The organization has worked to provide training to journalists to prevent hate speech between Suwayda and neighboring Daraa, as well as other parts of Syria. 

“The deposed regime tried to destabilize societal peace [between the two provinces] with the principle of divide and conquer,” Hisham al-Jawhari, projects manager of Balady, explained.

“There must be [direct] communication between all social components of the Syrian people…away from the discourse on social media pages,” he said. This could take the form of dialogue sessions, he added.

But he says it is not only the remit of civil society organizations to combat hate speech. “Participatory governance, state-building and drafting the constitution helps reduce divisions among Syria’s components,” al-Jawhari added. “In turn, this decreases hostility among individuals and unites them in building a country every Syrian dreams of.”