Who Are The Druze?

By Pesach Benson, TPS

A deadly Hezbollah rocket attack that killed 12 children playing soccer not only pushed Israel and the Iran-backed terror group to the brink of war, it also thrust the little-known Druze community into the international spotlight.

“In recent years, there has been a very positive change among the Druze of the Golan. They are Israelis today in every way. If you listen to them in recent days since the disaster, they speak fluent Hebrew, and everyone speaks in terms of ‘an attack on the Golan Heights is an attack on Israel,’” Nadim Ammar told The Press Service of Israel.

Ammar is the founder and president of the Ohr-Israeli Druze Foundation for Academic and Cultural Advancement, located in the northern district Druze village of Julis.

“The shift towards integrating into Israel began since the war in Syria. More and more people want to connect. Since yesterday, we see that the total solidarity of the general society and the Jews with the heavy disaster revealed how the Druze are an inseparable part of Israeli society,” Ammar explained.02:24

The Druze living in the Galilee and Mount Carmel areas sided with the Jews in 1948 during Israel’s War of Independence, opted to be part of Israeli society and established themselves in all areas of public life.

But when Israel captured the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War of 1967, the Golan Druze refused Israeli offers of citizenship, believing Syria would recapture the plateau. So for nearly 40 years, Golan Druze students studied in Syrian colleges, married Syrian Druze women, and even brought them back to the Israeli Golan to settle down.

“Since October 7, many Druze from the Golan who had not served in the army decided to enlist, and they are serving in emergency squads protecting the settlements. This is a very noticeable change that has happened in the last decade,” he added.

‘We Were Hidden For Many Years’

The Druze communities of Israel, Lebanon and Syria regard themselves as descendants of the Biblical Jethro –who they call Shuaib — the father-in-law of Moses. They speak Arabic but are not Muslim.

In Israel, Druze serve in senior positions in public and military life, and the bond between Jewish and Druze soldiers is referred to as the “covenant of blood.” According to figures released by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics in April, the Druze have grown tenfold from a community of 14,500 in 1949 to 152,000 today.

Secretive about their beliefs, the Druze neither intermarry nor accept converts. But Kamilia Falah told TPS-IL that this doesn’t contradict the community’s social advancement.

“We are a community that protects itself from everything, guarding our village and our families. However, despite our conservatism, we are also very open to progress. We have many scholars in our community. Among our women, there are impressive scholars, professors, and Knesset members. You can find us in every business sector. We have everything, just like everyone else,” said Falah, who runs the The Dr. Salman Falah Druze Heritage Center in the Western Galilee village of Sumei.

“As Druze, due to our secretive religion, we were hidden for many years. We lived this way because of the hostility of the societies we lived alongside. But in Israel, this changed. Israel gave us the respect and freedom we deserved, and so we integrated into it,” she explained.

Falah told TPS-IL, “We integrate here with all communities while maintaining our traditions. Whoever respects us, we give back even more respect. That is the story of our community.”

One particular gesture of solidarity that struck a chord among Israelis was Basma Hino, who made her restaurant kosher so she could distribute free food to soldiers passing through her village of Julis to the northern border. “I want to feed all the Israeli soldiers! They all are like my children, doesn’t matter, Druze or Jewish,” Hino explained to The Press Service of Israel in December.

Hino was later honored with lighting a torch in the annual Independence Day ceremony.

Ten Druze soldiers have fallen in duty since October 7, including eight near or in Gaza, and two in northern Israel. Since Israel’s founding, 439 Druze soldiers were killed in action.

Since Saturday’s attack, Ammar told TPS-IL, “We see that the total solidarity of the general society and the Jews with the heavy disaster revealed how the Druze are an inseparable part of Israeli society.”