Apples and Brides: Druze of the Golan
Druze living in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel has occupied from Syria during the Six-Days-War in 1967, are caught in a situation where they revive a dead border. Following this war, four Druze villages were left in the Golan under Israeli rule. Yet, they refuse to bear Israeli citizenship, and declare their loyalty to homeland Syria and the Assad regime on every opportunity. They do keep an open channel with Israeli...
more »Apples and Brides: Druze of the Golan
Druze living in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel has occupied from Syria during the Six-Days-War in 1967, are caught in a situation where they revive a dead border. Following this war, four Druze villages were left in the Golan under Israeli rule. Yet, they refuse to bear Israeli citizenship, and declare their loyalty to homeland Syria and the Assad regime on every opportunity. They do keep an open channel with Israeli society, though. As a result, the tensed Israeli-Syrian border opens a door every once in a while only for their use to maintain vast civil relations with Syria.
Cross-border weddings bring a bride from Syria into the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, and vice-versa. Approximately three brides arrive in the Golan for every one bride leaving to Syria. These brides are not able to go back home after crossing, due to the lack of Israeli-Syrian relations, but serve a higher political statement about the unity of the Druze on both sides. Up until the civil war in Syria began, family meetings took place in Jordan, in a sort of a neutral setting. Since the outbreak of the Syrian war, these meetings ceased, with phone calls taking over. People say it is technically difficult to make a connection, and one would probably make twenty attempts before success.
Apples are being constantly exported from the Golan into Syria by the thousands of tons. A local estimation quotes some 16,000 tons of exported apples during 2012. The Syrian government buys this Druze product, in an attempt to hold its grip within this community.
Some 200 Druze students have been studying in Syrian universities every year, mainly medicine and engineering. As of 2013, some 40 Druze students had their final phases of study, and it is not clear if the students’ flow would keep its rhythm.
Further, two Druze men from the Golan have infiltrated Syria from the Golan since the war broke, in order to join Assad’s troops against the rebels. Lowei Merei and Nadim Kadmani have already sent pictures via facebook of them fighting for Assad. Reports say a third man also made such a move into Syria in recent months.
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