GATE TO THE EAST The Lebanese Druze, Israel and the Majdal Shams massacre

The massacre of children at a sports field in the Golan Heights has put the spotlight on the village, divided by borders that were never recognised after being conquered in the 1967 war. Lebanon has asked the UN to open an independent investigation into the attack. The local Druze community is urging people not to be influenced by Israeli attempts to separate them from their Arab identity and to exploit the tragedy to sow discord with the Shiites.

Beirut () – Although they do not support the war of attrition launched by Hezbollah against northern Israel on October 8, the entire Druze community in Lebanon has united to denounce the threats made by the Jewish state against the pro-Iranian party, accused of being responsible for the July 27 bombing of Majdal Shams, the small town of 11,500 inhabitants in the Golan Heights, a territory conquered by Israel during the 1967 war and annexed in 1981. The Lebanese community speaks of an attempt to sow discord between Druze and Shiites and to obtain the loyalty to Israel of a population that still resists an illegal annexation, contrary to international resolutions 242 and 338 of the UN, and to which only President Donald Trump has given legitimacy.

According to former Lebanese minister Ghazi Aridi, more than 80% of the approximately 23,000 Druze in the Golan Heights still reject Israeli nationality, while the subject remains taboo in a religiously close-knit but territorially fragmented community, even though the vast majority of them live on Arab lands. Only 150,000 Druze live in Israel, which is equivalent to 2% of the total population.

The tragedy’s origin

Who is really behind the tragedy of Majdal Shams, which left 12 children between the ages of 10 and 16 dead and nearly thirty injured on a football pitch? Beyond the accusations and counter-accusations, theories point to an error that could have been caused by the incorrect trajectory of a Hezbollah launch or by the explosion on the ground of an Israeli interceptor missile.

Israel has identified the missile as Iranian-made. However, Lebanon has asked the United Nations to open an investigation to determine responsibility for the attack. UNDOF – the UN force charged with monitoring the withdrawal from the Golan Heights – must control the remains of the missile, insisted Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, who has joined efforts to defuse the dangerous threat of military escalation between Israel and Hezbollah that led to this tragedy.

The Druze united behind Joumblatt

“Putting aside personal and partisan rivalries, which have become secondary, the Druze community in Lebanon has united under the leadership of Walid Jumblatt in this case,” Ghazi Aridi continued.

“Attacking civilians is unacceptable and reprehensible, whether in occupied Palestine, the occupied Golan Heights or southern Lebanon,” Joumblatt said in a press statement, but “the history and present day of the Israeli enemy are replete with massacres it has committed and continues to commit against civilians.” Referring to Israeli efforts to separate the Druze in the Golan Heights from Syria, Joumblatt accused Israel of “for a long time trying to provoke conflict and fragment the region.”

Ghazi Aridi said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had come to pay his respects to the families and lay a wreath on the children’s graves, was booed yesterday by several dozen Syrian youths who shouted “Get out, murderer!”

Druze Sheikh Akl Sami Abil Mona and Sheikh Abu Youssef Amine el-Sayegh, one of the spiritual elders of the Druze community in Lebanon, called on the community to remain faithful to its values ​​and not to be influenced by attempts to exploit this tragic event to create internal divisions. “The Druze community has always been a pillar of Arabism,” said Sheikh Sayegh.

Waël Bou Faour, a member of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), followed Jumblatt’s example. “The Israeli occupation state mourns the child martyrs of the occupied Syrian Golan; this is the height of obscenity and hypocrisy,” he said. He criticised Israel for using the Druze as a pawn in its global strategy.

“Today they mourn them to sow discord between them and their Arab and Islamic brothers, while Netanyahu wants to use the Golan tragedy to torpedo any negotiations and continue his aggressive war against the Palestinian people, after the shameful comedy in Congress,” he added, referring to Netanyahu’s speech in the United States last Wednesday.

Talal Arslane, leader of the Lebanese Democratic Party, a pro-Syrian Druze party, also denounced the incident as a failed attempt to separate the Syrian Golan from its natural geographical ties and Syrian Arab identity. “The Golan will not fall into the trap of Israel’s plan, which aims to protect minorities in order to protect its artificial borders,” he said. He reiterated the community’s rejection of Israel’s actions and its commitment to resist until the occupied lands are fully liberated.

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