MAJDAL SHAMS, Golan Heights — Excessive within the mountains of the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, the city of Majdal Shams is house to members of one of many Center East’s most insular spiritual minorities: the Druze.
With its roots in tenth century Ismailism, a department of Shiite Islam, the roughly 1 million-strong minority is unfold throughout Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Golan Heights.
Round 25,000 reside within the Golan Heights, a rocky plateau seized from Syria by Israel within the 1967 Mideast warfare. Israel’s 1981 annexation of the world is acknowledged solely by the US, with the remainder of the world contemplating it occupied Syrian territory.
Most Druze spiritual practices are shrouded in secrecy, with outsiders not allowed to transform. Solely glimpses are seen: ladies sporting conventional flowing white headscarves; males with spherical white hats and flowing beards.
Though Israeli citizenship is open for the Druze of the Golan Heights, most have opted to not take it, although they’ve residency rights.
They carefully keep their Druze id and traditions. The autumn of Syrian President Bashar Assad per week in the past noticed individuals take to the streets in Majdal Shams to have fun Assad’s ouster, with the purple, yellow, blue, white and inexperienced Druze flag that includes as prominently because the insurgent Syrian inexperienced, white and black flag with three purple stars.
Because the area is riven as soon as extra by upheaval and combating, proof of the 1967 warfare remains to be clear to see, with previous trenches and deserted tanks. A safety fence, topped by coils of barbed wire, now runs alongside the outskirts of the city, throughout a subject from the close by Alpha Line.
The present wars haven’t left Majdal Shams unscathed both. On Oct. 8, 2023, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah started attacking Israel in solidarity with Hamas’ cross-border assault the day before today, sparking almost 14 months of combating alongside Israel’s northern entrance. On a night in late July, a rocket struck a soccer subject in Madjal Shams whereas kids performed. Twelve kids, ages 10 to 16, had been killed, and about 20 different individuals had been wounded.
The strike plunged the city into mourning. 5 months later, soccer video games have resumed within the taking part in subject, the place a small make-shift memorial with toys and teddy bears marks the spot the place the rocket hit.
Israel’s cease-fire with Hezbollah final month introduced the city a short respite. However with Syria’s Assad toppled and Syrian militant teams and Israeli troops lively throughout the border, the residents of Majdal Shams, a lot of whom have kin in Syria, now face extra uncertainty and insecurity.
Some households are cut up aside by what is called the Alpha Line, the beginning of a buffer zone that separates the Israeli-controlled space of the Golan Heights from Syria. They navigate their traditionally Syrian id whereas dwelling below Israeli rule. Throughout the border in Lebanon and Syria, the Druze usually adopted Arab nationalism, together with assist for the Palestinian trigger.
Israel has additionally constructed settlements within the Golan Heights that are actually house to some 25,000 Israeli Jews, and the world is a well-liked vacationer spot for Israelis. Many flock to the mountainous area for the surroundings and the native scorching springs.
