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,…
A few days before the anniversary of Gilad Shalit’s return home from captivity in Gaza, the story of another missing Israeli soldier has come to an altogether more tragic end. Majdy Halabi, an ethnic Druze, disappeared in May 2005 near his home in northern Israel. Today, in a brief statement, the Israeli military said that…
The most famous Miss Israel contestant not to win the national pageant has returned to the headlines in Israel. Duah Fares, a Druze Israeli who made waves before withdrawing from the 2007 Miss Israel pageant, is back in the news after the murder of her younger sister, Maya. Jamila Fares, a 21-year-old who went by…
Crossposted from Haaretz The documentary “Shout,” screened at the Haifa International Film Festival, outlines the dilemmas facing young Druze from the Golan Heights who leave to study in Damascus and cannot return. Minarets slice the skyline and gray residential buildings stand among them. Uniformed police pass through the streets scrutinizing passersby. Two young men in…
The name Shaykh Mowafak Tarif probably doesn’t mean much to you. But among Israel’s Druze minority, everybody has heard of him — he is the community’s spiritual leader. Today he will receive an honorary doctorate at the University of Haifa. There is much excitement about the award in the Druze community, where it is seen…
Hezbollah maintains that it needs to hold on to its weapons to defend Lebanon from Israel. Never mind that Israel pulled out of Southern Lebanon eight years go. Now, of course, the Shiite militia is turning its guns against its fellow Lebanese. After heavy fighting earlier this week in Druze-dominated mountain areas outside of Beirut,…
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