Hezbollah’s missile attack on the Golan Druze town of Majdal Shams on Saturday, which killed 12 children and wounded over 40 people, was met with anger and shock in Syria’s Druze community.

For Syrian Druze, the residents of Majdal Shams are relatives, countrymen and coreligionists, and any harm to them is a direct attack on all Syrian Druze.

While social media blazed with fury and calls for revenge, the spiritual leader of the Druze in Syria, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijiri, published a vaguely worded letter calling for justice against the perpetrators of the massacre. He did not name Hezbollah.

“We condemn the despicable crime against innocent people in the peaceful and quiet village of Majdal Shams,” he wrote.

“We call on the U.N. and the international community to investigate the guilty faction, as it is clear to everyone who the perpetrators are,” he continued.

Al-Hijiri’s appeal was published on the X account of the Druze news channel Suwayda24, which reports from the Jabal al-Druze area in southern Syria. The responses on the page leave no doubt as to the sentiment of the local population.

“[Hezbollah leader] Hassan Nasrallah took his revenge on the Druze who supported the rebels [in the Syrian civil war] and not [President Bashar] Assad,” wrote Hassan al-Aridi, a resident of Suwayda.

Another individual wrote: “Nothing Hezbollah says will help; we know who is responsible for this crime.”

The Druze rift

Druze anger towards the Syrian regime and Hezbollah is part of a long process of estrangement from the Assad government.

Syria is home to more than 600,000 Druze, the largest Druze community in the world. Most reside in the Jabal al-Druze (“Mountain of the Druze”) area in the southeast of the country. For decades, the Druze were loyal supporters of the Ba’ath regime in Syria, which showed a certain tolerance toward their religion.

When the revolt against Assad’s rule broke out in 2011, the Druze found themselves on the fence. Many served in the regime’s army, and they feared the religious and fundamentalist nature of many of the Sunni rebel groups.

Druze fears became a horrific reality in July 2018. Hundreds of Islamic State terrorists carried out a series of terrorist attacks, suicide bombings and kidnappings of Druze civilians around Jabal al-Druze. Two hundred and fifty-eight Druze civilians were murdered and 36 women were kidnapped by the terrorists and sold into slavery.

However, when the Druze needed the regime most, Assad’s army preferred to send forces to fight the rebels to the south. Worse still, regime officials acted to disarm the Druze militias in the months leading up to the attack, fearing their loyalty to the regime was insufficient.

This betrayal by regime officials left anger and bitterness, which erupts repeatedly in Jabal al-Druze, which the regime struggles to control. Waves of protests and even violence against regime officials occur regularly in Suwayda, the capital of the Druze province, and the Druze themselves are armed and maintain complex relations with Assad’s army, which now controls all of southern Syria.

In May, massive protests took place in Suwayda, and the flags of the Syrian opposition were hoisted over government buildings in the city.

It is very likely that the deteriorating relations between the Assad regime and the Druze will reach a new low following Hezbollah’s attack on Majdal Shams. As Israel’s border with Syria becomes another theater of the war being waged against it by Iran, the Druze turning against the regime may create an interesting alignment of interests.

Image - Michael Giladi/Flash90