Top Syrian Druze leader condemns Israeli invasion
The leader of Syria’s Druze, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, has condemned Israel’s invasion of Syria and said his country needs to maintain its social and territorial unity.
Speaking to Middle East Eye in an exclusive interview from his home in Qanawat, a town in southern Syria’s Sweida province, Hijri said: “The Israeli invasion concerns me and I reject it.”
The religious leader added that contacts between Syria’s Druze community and the new authorities in Damascus led by Ahmed al-Sharaa have been positive.
“But we are waiting for accomplishments from the new government, not just positive words,” he said.
Syria’s Druze are once again caught up in an Israeli invasion. Hours after rebels led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) commander Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, toppled Bashar al-Assad’s government on 8 December, Israel began moving troops into Syrian territory.
They invaded from the Golan Heights, a Syrian plateau that Israel has occupied since 1967.
Both the Golan and areas now taken by Israel were heavily populated by Druze, an ethno-religious sect spread across several countries in the Levant.
Israel says it is protecting its borders from turmoil in Syria, and has struck hundreds of military targets across the country over recent days.
However, despite international calls to retreat, its forces remain in newly captured territories.
“Druze people want to remain in their lands with privacy, but this has become an international matter,” Hijri said. “The invasion is something that should be addressed by all countries.”
Balancing interests
When Syria’s revolution and civil war broke out in 2011, the Druze in Sweida warily sought to distance themselves from the conflict.
Yet despite being nominally under Assad’s control, from 2020 Syrians in Sweida regularly broke out into protests against his government.
Hijri was a vocal supporter of the protests and therefore the most senior critical voice in areas of the country held by Assad’s government. Ninety percent of people in Sweida province are Druze.
“The people of Sweida were suffering from bad abuses and so they wanted to place pressure on the ruler. They wanted other countries to see that Syria is a kind and peaceful place,” he said.
After the Israelis took the Druze-majority town of Hader in Quneitra province earlier this month, a video emerged of a Druze cleric arguing that it would be better for the town to be annexed by Israel than left to the rebels that had seized Damascus.
HTS, the most powerful rebel force led by Sharaa, grew out of a faction that was once the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda.
Its fighters have a reputation as hardline Sunnis, though Sharaa sought to build ties with Druze in northern Idlib province in recent years, returning houses that had been commandeered by rebels.
Israel’s foreign minister has suggested his country should create a “minority alliance” with the Druze in the region.
On the streets of Sweida city on Friday, hundreds of Druze made their allegiances clear, celebrating the revolution with music and dancing.
