Until Saturday, July 27, 2024, most people did not know of the Druze community in Israel, or even of the Druze in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. The Druze are a unique people with their own religion incorporating aspects of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Zoroastrian and other spiritual beliefs. They are a distinct ethnic group.

The majority of the Druze population lives in the Levant (Israel, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon). There are Druze diaspora in the United States, Venezuela, Canada, Australia and Druze families in other countries. The Druze adhere to the laws of whatever country they reside in, and they promote peace. Statistics put their total numbers around one million.

Approximately 12 percent of the Druze live in Israel. Latest figures estimate numbers at 153,000. Druze speak Arabic and are considered an Arab people. Arabs comprise 21% of the total population of Israel-about 2.1 million. The Druze living in Israel are active citizens, participating in public service including serving in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). 

For over 40 years the Druze had their own unit, the Herev (Sword) Battalion which started integrating into the larger IDF forces in 2015. They disbanded with a record of outstanding service, high standards and were highly respected.

Tragically, the Druze are thrust into the media spotlight because of the missile attack fired by Hezbollah which killed 12 children last Saturday, and wounded at least 30 people who were spectators at the football/soccer stadium that fateful day. Once again the terrorist groups launched their attack on a Saturday in Israel, as Hamas and its supporters did on October 7, 2023.

Assault on the Druze town of Suwayda, Syria - July, 2018

In the past ten years there have been a number of horrific attacks on Druze communities that have not been reported by the commercial media or the international press. I will write about two here, and go into detail about the July 2018 assault by Daesh/ISIS on the Druze city of Suwayda in southern Syria.

Villagers in Suwayda fought for three days and nights, but the city of 170,000 was not protected by the Syrian military or security forces. The Druze didn’t have enough weapons to resist the armed attack with sophisticated weapons and tactics.

It was reported Daesh/ISIS started with suicide bombers and explosions, then went door to door killing whole families. They showed no mercy to infants, females or the elderly.

ISIS claimed responsibility and slaughtered at least 258 civilians, wounding hundreds of others. They kidnapped young Druze children and women and took them hostage. 80 terrorist fighters were killed by the Druze.

Hostage negotiations involved paying millions of dollars to ISIS. Daesh/ISIS demanded the Syrian government halt its fighting against ISIS in the Yarmouk valley. There was a demand for a prisoner release of Daesh fighters.

Two of the women hostages died in captivity. ISIS would only permit the release of a few of the 38 hostages at a time. Then they would change the terms of agreement for the next group to be released. They bargained over them via the dark net, on Islamic sites. A strategy also used by Hamas.

As with the attacks against the Yezidis and Christians in Iraq and Syria by Daesh/ISIS-there was little international support, nor was there public condemnation of these atrocities.

Attack on the Druze in Qalb Loze, in Syria - June, 2015

For some time, threats to Syrian Druze villages came from the area of Jubata al-Khashab, a village just five miles to the south of an area controlled by the Islamist terrorist group known as Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) an affiliate of Al Qaeda. As a result, Israeli soldiers sometimes refer to the Quneitra crossing as "Nusra Crossing".

On June 10, 2015, al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) killed at least twenty Druze in Qalb Loze, a village in Syria's northwestern Idlib province. Six days later, two Assad regime soldiers serving at the Druze town of Khadr on the border with Israel killed their Druze commander before defecting to JN. The next day, Islamist militants seized a strategic hilltop north of Khadr and surrounded the Syrian village after fierce fighting with regime forces. These Islamist groups consider the Druze as “heretics” and apply cruel and barbarous strategies to eliminate them. They take hostages whenever they can.

The International Red Cross and other NGOs refused to get involved since they report “they are neutral” and don’t want to be part of any side in a conflict.

The Qalb Loze attack revealed a schism within the Druze community in Lebanon and Syria, where the political allegiance is split between pro- and anti-Assad alliances. Some Druze youth have been recruited into the violent, Islamic terrorist groups of Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and ISIS-all supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran.          

The Druze are warriors. While social media blazes with fury and callsfor revenge, one of the spiritual leaders of the Druze in Syria, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijiri, published a letter calling for justice against the perpetrators of the massacre on July 27,2024.

"We condemn the despicable crime against innocent people in the peaceful and quiet village of Majdal Shams. We call on the UN and the international community to investigate the guilty faction, as it is clear to everyone who the perpetrators are."

He hinted at an accusation against Hezbollah. Despite the non-committal wording, it is an accusatory gesture towards the Syrian regime and its allies in Hezbollah, and in Iran, who deny any connection to the incident.

But as another Druze named Kholoud, wrote on social media:

"Nothing Hezbollah says will help; we know who is responsible for this crime."

ISIS/Daesh has forced Druze communities in the Levant to publicly disavow their faith or face death. In one issue of its propaganda magazine, Dabiq, ISIS explains that Druze are infidels and that:

“Their women can be taken as slaves and their property can be seized. They are apostate heretics whose repentance cannot be accepted. Rather they are to be killed where ever they are found and cursed as they were described . . .”

This incendiary language, similar to how ISIS/Daesh describes the Yazidis, and other religions, is a reminder of the unique, existential threat that Islamic extremism poses to certain communities, including the Druze. They need international support, not just from Israel, to address the threat to their existence, and to stop the spread of violent Islamic extremism. We can no longer ignore these attacks.

RESOURCES

**You can read more about the Druze and the region in my two non-fiction books: “Traveler Between Worlds” and “Traveling Off the X” by Jo Patti Munisteri, which describe my work and living in these countries from a first hand perspective. Both books are available in all formats-print, Audible and Kindle/Nook.

Here is my author profile with links to my works on Amazon. (click on the underlined words for links) 

See this article on my Substack page: Substack