The Syrian Drus delegation traveled to Israel this week with a rare visit to a shrine of faith, which Israel sought to expand its influence to Syria after the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad.
There are a large number of Druth communities in Israel and Syria, a religious minority that speaks Arabic, scattered throughout the Levant. But as the two countries officially persisted in the war for decades, Syrian Druss usually cannot enter Israel to visit their faith.
Israel’s Druse leader Sheikh Muwafaq Tarif helped organize the two-day visit, saying about 100 people arrived from Syria on Friday. They visited the tomb of the Prophet Shuva in the northern part of Israel, a holy place for the denomination.
“It was a great time to see our people reach our country after decades cut off,” Mr Tarif said, adding that he only knew most of the visitors from the phone conversation because it was difficult to travel between the two countries.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein wrote on social media that the pilgrimage was the first of its kind in decades.
In Israel, many Druses hold Israeli passports, serve in the national army, and are regarded as loyal “brothers”. Other Druses living in the Golan Heights were territory captured by Israel from Syria during the 1967 Middle East War, which was later annexed, still considered itself Syrian and tended to have an Israeli residence card but had no citizenship.
Since the collapse of Mr. Assad’s dictatorship in early December, Israel has launched a series of air strikes in Syria, aimed at preventing mass groups of hostile forces near its borders. However, these actions have raised fears from Syrians about the lasting occupation of Syrian territory.
Meanwhile, Israel has contacted Druse, many of whom live in villages and cities in southern Syria as potential partners.
The Drus militia in Syria are under pressure from the unified state army the new president is trying to establish. Israeli officials suggested that if Israel is threatened by government forces, Israel can intervene on behalf of Drus, including military.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said this week that Israel “was ready to defend Syria’s Drus population if needed to avoid the new regime’s forces.” Syria’s main Drus militia publicly rejected the proposal.
Israeli Defense Minister Katz said this week that Israel is ready to allow some Syrian Drus to enter Israeli-controlled territory to work in the Golan Heights.
Druse belonged to a sect that left Islam about 1,000 years ago and eventually became an independent religion. Its members are now scattered between Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Northern Israel, often finding themselves on the opposite side of the conflict in the region.
Since the fall of Mr. Assad, Israeli forces have entered Syrian territory, capturing 155 square miles of buffer zones and bombing targets nationwide. Israeli officials condemned the Islamic leadership of the new government in Damascus and said their troops would remain in Syria for the foreseeable future.
New Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara calls on the international community to put pressure on Israel. He also insisted that his government had no threat to neighboring countries or religious minorities because Syrians were tired of war.
