Druze Leader Ask Israel To Grant Asylum to 20 Syrian Families

Homecoming?: A druze leader asks Netanyahu to allow 20 druze families living in Syria to return to the Golan. Image by Getty Images

By JTA June 23, 2013

Druze leaders living on the Israeli Golan Heights asked Israel’s prime minister to allow some Druze in Syria to enter Israel.

Sources told the Times of Israel that the request to Benjamin Netanyahu, made in a letter last week, covers about 20 families.

The letter was given to the director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, Harel Locker, during a meeting with some 100 Druze leaders on the Golan Heights.

The Druze living in Syria had left the Golan as students, many marrying and starting families, the newspaper reported.

At some point the request could expand to include family members of the Golan Druze stuck in the middle of the violent two-year Syrian civil war.

Some 20,000 Druze live on the Israeli Golan Heights, with about 133,000 living in the rest of Israel.

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