Israel is up to its old 'divide and rule' tricks. Syria's Druze must resist them
While a new era of hope may be unfolding in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship, bringing long-waited aspirations for democracy, the forgotten and marginalised area of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is creating worrying uncertainty.
Israel further expanded its occupation in the area by seizing the 235 sq km demilitarised buffer zone, agreed upon in the 1974 ceasefire agreement following the October 1973 war.
Israeli offensives in the area marked another breach of international laws and treaties, and led to much speculation around the future of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
By default, these events put the Druze residents of the area in particular, and Syrian Druze in general, in the spotlight once again.
On 9 December, a day after Assad fled, while millions of Syrians took to the streets to celebrate, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking from the 1974 ceasefire borders separating the Occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria, addressed directly the Druze of Syria. “Sending first and foremost a hand of peace to our brothers, the Druze of Syria, that are brothers of our Israeli Druze brothers," he said.
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This statement brought flashbacks from the 1970s Israeli vision/plan of sponsoring and establishing a separate “Druze state” in the Levant, gambling on unconditional Druze support of Israel. In the days following this statement, many other Israeli ministers followed suit and issued similar statements.
In addition, uncertified video footage emerged from the Syrian Druze village of Hadar, close to the 1974 buffer zone, which showed a Druze man calling for his village to be annexed to Israel - causing headlines around the world - although the sentiments were rejected and condemned in a statement signed by the leaders of the village.
Tactics of division
The offensives on Syrian territory by Israel, and the statements by Israeli officials, are a clear attempt to sabotage Syrian unity and sovereignty and to put a spoke in the wheels of Syria’s nation-building aspirations.
One of Israel’s coercive tactics in the Middle East is to “divide and conquer”, taking advantage of the ethnic and religious mosaic of the area.
Israel has reached out to most of the minorities that live in the region, using religion or ethnicity to steer the area away from Arabism as a national aspiration.
For example, since 1952, Israel has imposed mandatory military service on the Druze, Circassians and Bedouin, separating them from their natural communities - Arab and Muslim societies.
A similar process was undertaken during Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon from 1982 to 2000 regarding the “South Lebanon Army”.
In the 1970s, Israel took the tactics of division to extremes.
Building on Israeli Druze integration into the Israeli army, and following the defeat of the Arabs in the 1967 war, Israel seized the chance presented by Arab weakness and reached out to Druze leaders in the newly occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Lebanon and Jabal al-Druze in Syria, to "push" its plan to establish a Druze state as a buffer between Israel and Syria.
Yigal Allon, the Israeli minister who was the public figure behind this plan, suggested that Israel must sponsor a Druze republic in southern Syria and the Golan Heights, which would “definitely have a military and economic alliance with Israel”.
This plan was rejected by Druze leaders, received no public support among the Druze - even in Israel - and the idea was abandoned by Israelis for decades.
A clear message
But, following the success of the overthrow of Assad, it would appear that Israel is taking advantage of this historic and fragile moment in Syria’s history to further expand its colonialism.
Firstly, by occupying Syrian land by force, evacuating seven villages in the Quneitra governate. And, secondly, by returning to its divide-and-rule tactics by advocating, again, for a Druze state, while trying to sabotage the unity shown by almost all factions in Syria.
It's early days, but again, this old Israeli vision seems doomed to failure. Druze communities all around the Middle East have again rejected it: Druze leaders in Syria's Suwayda declared that the governorate (comprised mainly of Druze citizens) was an integral part of Syria and rejected all separation plans.
Druze in Lebanon, the Golan Heights, Jordan and Israel followed suit - in what was a clear message to Netanyahu.
The events of the last two decades in the region, and the rise of sectarianism, may have encouraged Israel to go back to this old plan of division and fragmentation.
Israel has perceived Syria, in recent years, as a divided, sectarian society, with no hope of unity - which has probably encouraged the Israeli prime minister to state these views publicly.
One of Syria’s main immediate challenges, while shaping the nation’s new government, is to ensure the unity, sovereignty and pluralism of Syria and Syrian society - and to reject all the projects of division and colonial aspirations towards the new republic.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
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