MAJDAL SHAMS, Golan Heights (AP) — High in the mountains of the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, the town of Majdal Shams is home to members of one of the most isolated religious minorities in the Middle East: the Druze.
With its roots in 10th-century Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam, the roughly 1 million-strong minority is spread across Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Golan Heights.
About 25,000 people live on the Golan Heights, a rocky plateau that Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Middle East war. Israel's annexation of the area in 1981 is recognized only by the United States, while the rest of the world considers the area as occupied Syrian territory.
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Most Druze religious practices are shrouded in secrecy, with outsiders not allowed to convert. Only glimpses are visible: women wearing traditional, flowing white headscarves; men with round white hats and flowing beards.
Although Israeli citizenship is open to the Druze of the Golan Heights, most have chosen not to take it, even though they have residency rights.
They scrupulously maintain their Druze identity and traditions. When Syrian President Bashar Assad fell a week ago, people took to the streets of Majdal Shams to celebrate Assad's ouster, with the red, yellow, blue, white and green Druze flag as prominent as the Syrian green , white and black flag of the rebels. with three red stars.
As the region is once again torn by unrest and fighting, evidence of the 1967 war is still clearly visible, with old trenches and abandoned tanks. A security fence, topped by rolls of barbed wire, now runs along the edge of the city, across a field of the nearby Alpha Line.
The current wars have not left Majdal Shams unscathed. On October 8, 2023, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah began attacking Israel in solidarity with Hamas' cross-border attack the day before, leading to nearly fourteen months of fighting along Israel's northern front. One evening in late July, a rocket hit a football field in Madjal Shams while children were playing. Twelve children aged 10 to 16 were killed and about twenty other people were injured.
The strike left the city in mourning. Five months later, football matches have resumed on the playing field, where a small makeshift memorial with toys and teddy bears marks the spot where the rocket hit.
Israel's ceasefire with Hezbollah last month gave the city a brief respite. But with Assad overthrown in Syria and Syrian militant groups and Israeli forces operating across the border, residents of Majdal Shams, many of whom have relatives in Syria, now face increased uncertainty and insecurity.
Some families are being torn apart by what is known as the Alpha Line, the start of a buffer zone separating the Israeli-controlled area of the Golan Heights from Syria. They navigate their historically Syrian identity while living under Israeli rule. Across the border in Lebanon and Syria, Druze generally adopted Arab nationalism, including support for the Palestinian cause.
Israel has also built settlements on the Golan Heights, where some 25,000 Israeli Jews now live, and the area is a popular tourist spot for Israelis. Many flock to the mountainous area for the scenery and local hot springs.