JERUSALEM: Israel’s stated commitment to defending the Syrian Druze is, by the admission of some of its leaders, consistent with a long-term strategic goal — the weakening of Syria.

Israel, which has occupied part of Syrian territory since 1967, claimed to be protecting the Druze minority to justify several strikes following recent, bloody inter-communal clashes in Syria. In the aftermath of one strike near the Presidential Palace in Damascus on May 3, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the bombardment should serve as a “clear message”.

“We will not allow forces to be sent south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community,” he said.

In March, Israel had threatened to intervene if the new government that toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad “touched the Druze”. However, according to Andreas Krieg, senior lecturer at King’s College London, Israel is not motivated by “altruistic concerns” and is “obviously now using (the minority group) as some sort of pretext to justify their military occupation of parts of Syria”.

In a speech last month, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich hinted at the government’s intentions, saying the conflict in Gaza against Hamas would end when “Syria is dismantled”, among other goals. The country’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has confirmed that indirect talks with Israel have taken place “to contain the situation”.

‘Druze autonomy’

Entangled in a conflict with Hamas that has spilled over Israel’s borders, Netanyahu has insisted that he is determined to “change the Middle East”.

In 2015, while a member of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, advocated the division of Syria into various ethno-religious entities, envisaging “Druze autonomy in southern Syria”. The plan was reminiscent of the division of Syria imposed between the two world wars by France, then the mandatory power.

Paris ultimately had to abandon the scheme under pressure from Syrian nationalists, including among the Druze. Israel’s largest neighbour, Damascus fought in three Arab-Israeli wars — in 1948-1949, June 1967, and October 1973.

The last war cemented Israel’s control over most of the Golan Heights, territory which it conquered from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981. Following Assad’s overthrow, Israel moved its forces into the UN-patrolled demilitarised zone on the Golan and carried out hundreds of strikes against military targets in Syria.

The Druze, followers of a religion that split from Shia Islam, are mainly found in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. In its official figures, Israel counts around 152,000 Druze, though that includes 24,000 who live in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, of whom fewer than five per cent have Israeli citizenship.

Countering Turkiye

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), 126 people were killed during clashes with government security forces last week in predominantly Druze and Christian areas near Damascus and in the Druze stronghold of Suweida in the far south.

After these clashes, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri, a Syrian Druze religious leader, called for the deployment of an international protection force and endorsed a community statement asserting that the Druze were “an inalienable part” of Syria.

Within Israel, Druze took part in several demonstrations demanding that the government defend members of their religion in Syria. While most Druze in the Golan continue to identify as Syrian, the Israeli Druze population has been loyal to the State of Israel since its creation in 1948 and the group is over-represented in the army and police.

“The State of Israel feels indebted to the Druze and their exceptional commitment to the Israeli army,” said Efraim Inbar, a researcher at the INSS.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2025