As Bashar Assad’s government fell on Sunday, Israel’s Druze community eager to reconnect with relatives across the border watched with special interest.

“It’s like watching the Berlin Wall fall all over again,” Wael Mugrabi told The Press Service of Israel with palpable emotion. “The fear that gripped people for so long is suddenly gone. For the first time in decades, my relatives in Syria feel free to speak to me.”

Mugrabi is the head of the Ein Qiniyye Local Council in the Golan Heights, home to around 2,100 Druze.