Sweida violence tests Druze loyalty to Syria in Golan Heights : NPR

The Druze are waiting near the border fence in the village of Golan Heights, annexed Israeli, Majdal Shams, while the Syrian Druze who had crossed the day before returning to Syria after the days of sectarian blood effusion in the southern Sowida region of Sweida on July 17.

Jalaa Marey / AFP via Getty Images

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Jalaa Marey / AFP via Getty Images

Majdal Shams, Golan Heights – Throughout his life, Jalaa Ayoub could see Syria, just a few tens of meters from the eastern tip of his city in the heights of Golan occupied by Israeli. But he couldn’t go there.

Then, in July, when fatal fights broke out between different religious factions, he decided, without hesitation, to cross the border in southern Syria to help protect the loved ones who live there.

“We have total allegiance to Syria,” said Ayoub, 37. “For me, it’s my homeland, and so I wanted to go.”

Ayoub is part of the majority Druze community in the city of Majdal Shams. About 1 million The Druze Spustting of Shia Islam centuries ago and lived dispersed through Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and in the heights of Golan. This is where Ayoub lives, on earth which formerly belonged to Syria but was annexed by Israel in a war in 1967.

Despite more than five decades under Israeli control, the Golan Druze remain fiercely linked to their Syrian identities. Most of them refused Israeli citizenship, rather choosing to attach to the lot of neighboring Syria.

But their loyalty to Syria has been tested by sectarian fights in recent weeks in the Sweida region, in southern Syria. More than 1,000 people, many civilians, were killed in clashes between certain Sunni Bedouin tribes, Syrian government forces and druze factions.

Deadly violence has challenged the cohesion of the fragile government fragile of Syria. He exposed longtime rifles that the new leaders of Syria have struggled to contain since the takeover last December.

In the midst of the accounts of atrocities and executions carried out by all factions, the Druze in the heights of Golan says that they feel disillusioned, or even betrayed by the interim government of Syria, headed By Ahmed Al-Sharaa, A former activist affiliated with Al-Qaida.

“This diet came to dissect people, divide people and create sectarianism among people,” explains Ayyoub, mustachioed and carrying the traditional agitated pants of Druze men. “The regime has shown us what their beliefs are, and we are against these beliefs.”

While violence intensified, the borders opened

Before a provisional government ceasefire at the end of July, Druze civilians in Syria trying to escape the bloodbath in Sweida began to go to Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights.

Haniye Abuzaid, a resident of Majdal Shams, said she was sitting at home watching television one morning in July when her daughter called with an incredible news: her niece and her daughter of her niece had crossed Syria in the heights of Golan.

“I was so happy to see her,” said Abuzaid about her niece. “I hadn’t seen it for 40 years.”

His relatives had simply crossed the border. The Israeli border guards allowed people to cross an area known as “Shouting“So named because the members of the family standing on the opposite sides are close enough to see each other and get along.

Sayyid Ahmad, 62, baker at Majdal Shams, said her four sons were also heading for Syria to see the family during the worst fights. It was a trip, he said, which solidified his family’s bonds with Syria. “We had to offer help. We brought food. We provided financial assistance,” he said.

But his love for Syria does not extend to the country’s interim leader, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, including the militant group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham reversal The Assad regime last December.

“Golani is a terrorist”, shouts Ahmad, referring to Sharaa by his war name.

Since coming to power, Sharaa has struggled to convince various armed factions across Syria to establish their weapons and join a new national army under the control of the central government.

The groups of ethnic and religious minorities remain suspicious of Sharaa, and the majority-druze community of Sweida had been one of the main selected of demilitarization, as well as Kurdish militias In northeast Syria who are in negotiations On how to merge with the national army.

“Sharaa came to Sweida, and he immediately wanted to disarm people, and he wanted to impose his rules on people,” said Kifah Shaar, a resident of Majdal Shams. “And it turned into killings.”

When Sharaa ordered government troops to deploy in Sweida, ostensibly to repress the ongoing kidnapping reports between the Bedouin tribes and the Druze militias, some Druze fighters accused the troops of the Syrian government of rallying to the Bedouins.

“”This Sharaa army is not a decent Syrian army that will take care of us, “said Ahlam Garairreh, 45, a Druze cook at Majdal Shams who was born and grew up in Sweida. She says that six of her relatives were killed in the fights in July.

During the civil war against the enumeration regime of Assad, she said that her family to Sweida helped the rebels and refugees from all walks of life.

“They ate our food and were sleeping on our mattresses,” said Garairreh, trembling with anger, referring to the members of the Bedouin Sunni tribe. “Now they massacre us.”

“Do us feel safe”

Shaar, 34 executedOr buried In the tombs of southern Syria, before a provisional ceasefire was reached at the end of July.

The Syrian government Also evacuated About 1,500 Bedouin civilians moved or threatened by Druze militiamen.

Nearby, Shaar’s husband, Mu’thad, a restaurant director, shakes his head while mixing a large batch of chopped chickpeas.

“Sharaa must ensure that the Druze feels safe. He must establish security and stability. He must do it in a gentle way,” he said. “Sharaa must make the Druze feel that they are important members of society.”

Their fears – that minority groups like the Druze will be targeted by Sunni Muslim factions in Syria – were amplified last March, because the Syrian government forces were involved in the massacres more than 1,400 peopleMainly from the Allawite ethnic minority, along the Mediterranean coast of Syria. An acting government report from Syria this month has not found any evidence that the Syrian military management ordered the murders.

It was an intervention by Israel in the conflict. Since last December, it has been Striking targets in SyriaIncluding Sweida – in order, says Israel, to protect the Druze.

“Our interests in Syria are known, limited and clear: first of all, to maintain the status quo in the region of southern Syria, and to prevent threats against Israel. The second thing is to prevent the damage of the Druze community”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel Gideon Saar said in July.

In Majdal Shams, some in the Druze community welcomed the strikes of Israel, who also struck The Syrian Ministry of Defense in the capital Damascus.

“We have members of the Druze community of the Israeli army, and I don’t care if they are of Majdal Shams or not. They are Druze, so I fight with them, and they fight for me,” explains Jameel Braiq, resident of Majdal Shams.

Others here warn that the perception of being favored by Israel will make the Druze targets larger in Syria – and will risk more sectarian divisions.

“I think it is the poison that is put in the speech and trying to fuel all the hatred of the Syrians,” explains Wael Tarbieh, pro-syrian analyst of the organization of human rights based in Majdal Shams, Al Marsad.

Sharaa, an interim leader of Syria, tried to repress sectarian tensions by promising responsibility.

“We must recognize that any attempt to fragment the unity of the Syrian people or to exclude one of their components is a direct threat to the stability of Syria,” he said in a speech shortly after accepting a cease-fire in Sweida. “The Syrian state undertakes to protect all the minorities and sects of the country and will carry out all the responsible offenders, whatever.”

But the fights in Sweida have expanded sectarian fruits and underlined Factional identity once again.

“I was secular before. But I am no longer secular after what I saw in Sweida,” said Ahmad, the baker.

He says that with tears in his eyes that after having seen his comrades Druze killed in Syria, he decided to practice the religion of the Druze and started to pray.

Nuha Musleh contributed the Golan Heights reports.