Syrian Druze Support for Israeli Intervention in Syria: Interview
Broadly speaking, one can divide Israel’s actions in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime into two categories: (i) the incursion launched into al-Qunaytra and Deraa provinces along the border with the Golan Heights with the more specific aim of minimising the perceived threat of ‘anarchy’ to Israel’s security, and (ii) the broader commitment to protecting the Syrian Druze minority and strengthening relations with it through airstrikes and threats of airstrikes for attacks on Syrian Druze, encouraging Syrian Druze to visit Druze holy sites in Israel, and providing medical treatment and aid for Druze recently wounded in the violence that has affected Jaramana, Ashrafiyat Sahnaya and the peripheries of al-Suwayda’. The Israeli actions and declared commitments to the Syrian Druze are partly the result of lobbying by Israeli Druze as well as a tendency among many Israeli policymakers to prefer a Syria that has a weak central government and is largely split into autonomous enclaves by religious sect and ethnicity.
The declared Israeli intervention for the Syrian Druze has sympathy among a contingent of Syrian Druze themselves, though it is hard to know exactly how large that contingent is. In order to move forward with a lasting resolution for the status of Syria’s Druze community within the new Syria, it is important to show understanding for why some of them show support for Israel’s intervention, so that their concerns can be addressed. After all, many of those concerns overlap with broader Syrian Druze concerns since the fall of the regime.
None of this means having to reject engagement with the new Syrian government or endorsing the Israeli intervention and the particular views of this contingent supporting Israel’s actions- views that one can reasonably criticise as naive. Unfortunately, some of the discourse around this matter borders on conspiratorial thinking and sectarian incitement, as illustrated by a recent ‘investigation’ by a EekadFacts (which describes itself as the “Arab-region’s first open-source intelligence platform”) that purported to expose “armed Druze groups that do not merely glorify the occupation, but also adopt a Torah creed that considers a part of the ‘kingdom of Greater Israel’ to be in southern Syria.” The focus of the ‘investigation’ was the recently formed Druze group called Bayraq Sulayman bin Dawud (“The Banner of Solomon the son of David”), one of whose media activists I interviewed not too long ago. In EekadFacts’ telling, this group is intending to serve a project of separating the primarily Druze province of al-Suwayda’ from Syria. This sort of sensationalism is in fact one of the concerns among Druze about media incitement that contributes to inflaming sectarian tensions.
This time, I reached out to Majid Abu Ras, a leader of the group who was one of the subjects of EekadFacts’ exposé. The discussion focused on why he supports Israel’s intervention in Syria and his response to the exposé. This interview was conducted on 19 May.
A banner against ‘media incitement’ from a protest held at the beginning of this month in al-Suwayda’.
Q: Brother, firstly, in general what is the Bayraq’s position on Israel’s role in Syria? Does the Bayraq believe that Israeli intervention helps the Druze?