'Zionists' using Druze to repress Palestinians, expand into Syria, says Lebanon's Druze leader

By Wassim Samih Seifeddine and Abdulsalam Fayez

BEIRUT (AA) – Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt accused the "Zionists" on Monday of using Druze soldiers and officers to repress Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank while seeking to expand into Jabal al-Arab in the Suwayda governorate—the Druze stronghold in Syria.

“Certain weak-willed individuals” are pushing for civil war, Jumblatt said in a statement following an emergency meeting of the General Assembly of the Druze Sectarian Council at the sect’s headquarters in Beirut, where members discussed the latest developments in Lebanon and Syria.

Jumblatt, the former leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, said: "Zionism is using Druze as soldiers and officers to suppress the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, and now they want to seize Jabal al-Arab (Durze) in Syria."

“They want to drag some weak-spirited individuals into this. But the people of Syria know what they are doing,” he added, announcing plans to visit Damascus to reaffirm Syria’s role as a reference point for the Druze community.

Regarding Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, the spiritual leader of Druze in Israel, Jumblatt asserted: “He does not represent us and is backed by Zionist forces.”

He cautioned that some people are being lured into a dangerous path, warning: “If they succeed, it will lead to civil wars whose outcomes are unknown.”

Comparing the current period to past conflicts, including the Israeli occupation of Beirut, Jumblatt described it as “far more dangerous than anything we have previously experienced.”

“They want to seize Jabal al-Arab. Either we uphold our Arab identity, or we fall into the Zionist scheme,” he said.

Druze make up about 3% of Syria’s population and are also known as “Al-Muwahhidun” (the Unitarians). They are primarily concentrated in the southern province of Suwayda, with smaller communities in Damascus, its countryside, Quneitra, and northern Idlib.

On Saturday, tensions flared in Jaramana, near Damascus, due to clashes involving an armed militia refusing to disarm. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the military to “prepare to protect” what they described as a “Druze city.”

Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia on Dec. 8, ending the Baath Party’s regime, which had been in power since 1963.

The next day, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the new Syrian administration, who was appointed president on Jan. 29, tasked Mohammed Al-Bashir with forming a government to oversee Syria’s transitional period.

After the fall of the Assad regime, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone, a move that violated the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria. It also intensified airstrikes targeting Syrian military positions across the country.

Israel’s recent military advances in the Golan Heights, which it has occupied since 1967, have drawn condemnation from the UN and several Arab nations.