“What’s our fate, our brothers?”
-“Israel!”
Viral videos circulating on social media depicted a gathering of dignitaries from the village of Hader, on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, speaking in favor of joining Israel.
In the videos, a dignitary who spoke in front of a crowd of dozens, said: “In the name of the all the people of Hader, and if anyone objects, please say… if we have to choose, we will choose the lesser evil – to be annexed to the (Israeli) Golan!”
The speaker argued that Israel for them is ‘the lesser evil,’ warning that ‘the other evil coming our way,’ meaning the Islamist militias, would “take our wives, our daughters, our homes.”
أهالي حضر في الجولان السوري المحرر يطالبون بضمهم الى اسرائيل . pic.twitter.com/eMQBDrLw65
— مركز دراسات الازمات nidal hamade (@nidalhamade2) December 13, 2024
The speaker continued, arguing he speaks on behalf of several villages in the region: “We are with those who preserve our dignity… I don’t mind if anyone is taking pictures or recording – we ask to be annexed to the Golan… The fate of Hader is the fate of the surrounding villages, we want to ask to join our kin in the Golan, to be free from injustice and oppression,” to which those present at the convention replied shouting: “We agree, we agree!”
‘Fear of retaliation’
A source from Syria explained to the Jerusalem Post that, as opposed to the major Druze population concentrations in the Suwayda area, who have protested against the Assad regime for over a decade, these villages in the Syrian Golan area have remained largely loyal to the now overthrown regime. The source explained that they now fear violent acts of retaliation from other Syrians who were opposed to the Assad regime. They also called on Israel to trust their good intentions, despite their former alignment with Assad.
“These villages were in fact an enclave surrounded by rebel groups, most of them Sunni Islamists,” added Dr. Yusri Khaizran, senior lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Shalem College and a research fellow at the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University.
“For years Israel faced a conflict: on the one hand, it sought to create a certain mechanism of understandings with rebel organizations in the Golan Heights; while on the other hand, Israel’s commitment to the Druze community in Israel prompted it to create a balancing equation, signaling to the Islamists that they will not be allowed to invade the Hader enclave and carry out violent mass massacres against the Druze.”
Khaizran holds that the convention in Hader, in which the Druze dignitaries called to be annexed to Israel, stems from what he deemed the ‘falling apart of Syria.’ Even if it remains a state framework, Syria will de facto be subject to the control of militias, and I assume this comes in this context,” he explained, adding that Israel’s expanded military presence in the area and some family relations between the Druze on both sides of the Golan Heights may have also worked as a catalysator for this meeting.
“The Druze were never an anti-Israeli actor. In Hader they know very well that the one who prevented rebels from entering their towns and ‘settling the score’ was Israel, and that this was made out of Israel's commitment to the Druze community here,” he stressed.
Khaizran continued: “Strikingly, the Druze community in Israel is the smallest of the Druze communities in the Middle East, yet it has essentially become the shield of the Druze, a center of gravity that can provide assistance to the Druze in Syria.”
“The Israeli Druze community has contributed much to the resilience of the Druze community in Syria, through their special status in Israel,” Khaizran highlighted. “We are constantly seeing the spiritual leadership of the Druze community in Israel, led by Sheikh Muwafaq Tarif, making efforts to defend and support their kin through various channels,” he added, referring to meetings Tarif has held in the past weeks with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, and even the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed.
Regarding the question of what political framework the Druze in Syria are aspiring for, Khaizran commented: “Some in Israel have envisioned a Druze state, but I believe that their aspirations are more toward a pattern of complete autonomy, as was the case until 1954. What’s more important for them is to deny the Islamist forces from entering their areas.”
Khaizran concluded: “Recent developments, from the fall of the Assad regime to the decimation of Hezbollah, are certainly in Israel’s favor. The only Israeli concern should be of Turkish hegemony in Syria, but in terms of the ripple effects of these events, it is all the more empowering for Israel.”