JARAMANA: Syria’s Druze minority has a long history of cutting their own path to survive among the country’s powerhouses. They are now trying again to navigate a new, uncertain Syria since the fall of longtime autocrat Bashar Assad.
Members of the small religious sect find themselves caught between two forces that many of them distrust: the new, Islamist-led government in Damascus and Syria’s hostile neighbor, Israel, which has used the plight of the Druze as a pretext to intervene in the country.
Syria’s many religious and ethnic communities are worried over their place in the new system. The transitional government has promised to include them, but has so far kept authority in the hands of the Islamist former insurgents who toppled Assad in December — Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS. That and HTS’s past affiliation with Sunni Muslim extremist Al-Qaeda, has minorities suspicious.
The most explosive hostilities have been with the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad’s family belongs. Heavy clashes erupted this week between armed Assad loyalists and government forces, killing at least 70, in the coastal regions that are the Alawites’ heartland.
In contrast, the Druze — largely centered in southern Syria — have kept up quiet contacts with the government. Still, tensions have broken out.
Last week in Jaramana, a suburb of Damascus with a large Druze population, unknown gunmen killed a member of the government’s security forces, which responded with a wave of arrests in the district.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and military officials weighed in by threatening to send forces to Jaramana to protect the Druze. Druze leaders quickly disavowed the offer. But soon after, someone hung an Israeli flag in Sweida, an overwhelmingly Druze region in southern Syria, prompting residents to quickly tear it down and burn it.
Many fear another flare-up is only a matter of time.
Multiple Druze armed militias have existed for years, originally set up to protect their communities against Daesh group fighters and drug smugglers coming in from the eastern desert. They have been reluctant to set down their arms. Recently a new faction, the Sweida Military Council, proclaimed itself, grouping several smaller Druze militias.
The result is a cycle of mistrust, where government supporters paint Druze factions as potential separatists or tools of Israel, while government hostility only deepens Druze worries.
A struggle to unite a divided country
On the outskirts of Sweida, a commander in Liwa Al-Jabal, a Druze militia, stood on a rooftop and scanned the hills with binoculars. He spoke by walkie-talkie with a militiaman with an assault rifle below. They were watching for any movement by militants or gangs.
“Our arms are not for expansionist purposes. They’re for self-defense and protection,” said the commander, who asked to be identified only by his nickname Abu Ali for security reasons. “We have no enemies except those who attack us.”
Abu Ali, who is a metal worker as his day job, said most Druze militiamen would merge with a new Syrian army if it’s one that “protects all Syrians rather than crushes them like the previous regime.”
The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. Over half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
In Syria, the Druze take pride in their fierce independence. They were heavily involved in revolts against Ottoman and French colonial rule to establish the modern Syrian state.
During Syria’s civil war that began in 2011, the Druze were split between supporters of Assad and the opposition. The Sweida region stayed quiet for much of the war, though it erupted with anti-government protests in 2023.
Assad reluctantly gave Druze a degree of autonomy, as they wanted to avoid being involved on the frontlines. The Druze were exempted from conscription into the Syrian army and instead set up local armed factions made of workers and farmers to patrol their areas.
Druze say they want Syria’s new authorities to include them in a political process to create a secular and democratic state.
“Religion is for God and the state is for all” proclaimed a slogan written on the hood of a vehicle belonging to the Men of Dignity, another Druze militia patrolling the outskirts of Sweida.
‘Being inclusive will not hurt him’
Many Druze quickly rejected Israel’s claims to protect the minority. Hundreds took to the streets in Sweida to protest Netanyahu’s comments.
“We are Arabs, whether he or whether the Lord that created him likes it or not. Syria is free,” said Nabih Al-Halabi, a 60-year-old resident of Jaramana.
He and others reject accusations that the Druze want partition from Syria.
But patience is wearing thin over what many see as arbitrary layoffs of public sector workers, shortage of economic opportunities, and the new authorities’ lack of more than token inclusion of Syrians from minority communities. For the first time, a protest took place in Sweida on Thursday against Damascus’ new authorities.
Interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa has promised to create an inclusive system, but the government is made up mostly of his confidantes. The authorities convened a national dialogue conference last week, inviting Syrians from different communities, but many criticized it as rushed and not really inclusive.
“What we are seeing from the state today, in our opinion, does not achieve the interests of all Syrians,” said retired nurse Nasser Abou-Halam, discussing local politics with other residents in Sweida’s public square where near-daily protests took place. “It’s a one-color government, with leadership appointed through factions rather than through elections.”
Al-Sharaa “has a big opportunity to be accepted just to be Syrian first and not Islamist first. Being inclusive will not hurt him,” said Bassam Barabandi, a former Syrian diplomat currently based in Washington. “On the contrary, it will give him more power.”
Economic woes shorten the honeymoon
Syria’s new leaders have struggled to convince the United States and its allies to lift Assad-era sanctions. Without the lifting of sanctions, it will be impossible for the government to rebuild Syria’s battered infrastructure or win over minority communities, analysts say.
“I’m scared sanctions won’t be lifted and Syria won’t be given the chance,” said Rayyan Maarouf, who heads the activist media collective Suwayda 24. He has just returned to Sweida after fleeing to Europe over a year ago because of his activism.
“Syria could go back to a civil war, and it would be worse than before,” he said.
Outside Sweida, Abu Ali was helping train new volunteers for the militia. Still, he said he hopes to be able to lay down his weapons.
“There is no difference between the son of Sweida or Jaramana and those of Homs and Lattakia,” he said. “People are tired of war and bloodshed … weapons don’t bring modernizm.”
Syria’s Druze seek a place in a changing nation, navigating pressures from the government and Israel
https://arab.news/2quer
Syria’s Druze seek a place in a changing nation, navigating pressures from the government and Israel
- Members of the small religious sect find themselves caught between two forces that many of them distrust
- The many local Druze militias are reluctant to give up their arms until they’re confident of an inclusive new system
Israeli military says it intercepted missile from Yemen
- Israeli military says missile identified from Yemen towards Israel
CAIRO: The Israeli military said on Sunday that it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen toward Israel.
Sirens sounded in several areas in the country, the Israeli military said earlier.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have continued to fire missiles at Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Most of the group’s missile have been intercepted or have fallen short.
The Houthis did not immediately comment on the latest missile launch.
Syria to help locate missing Americans
DAMASCUS: Syria’s new authorities have agreed to help the United States locate and return Americans who went missing in the war-torn country, a US envoy said on Sunday.
“The new Syrian government has agreed to assist the USA in locating and returning USA citizens or their remains. The families of Austin Tice, Majd Kamalmaz, and Kayla Mueller must have closure,” US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack wrote on X.
Turkiye, PKK must both change for peace: former militant
- For years, Yuksel Genc was a fighter with the Kurdish rebel group
- Genc herself joined the militants in 1995 when she was a 20-year-old university student in Istanbul
DIYARBAKIR, Turkiye: “When you try and explain peace to people, there is a very serious lack of trust,” said Yuksel Genc, a former fighter with the PKK, which recently ended its decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state.
Talking over a glass of tea in a square in Diyarbakir, the biggest city in Turkiye’s Kurdish-dominated southeast, this 50-year-old former fighter with long auburn curls is worried about how the nascent rapprochement between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) will play out.
“The guerillas are sincere, but they don’t think the state is,” said Genc, her words briefly interrupted by the roar of a fighter jet flying overhead.
“They think the government does not trust them.”
For years, she was a fighter with the Kurdish rebel group, which on May 12 said it would disarm and disband, ending a four-decade armed struggle against the Turkish state that cost more than 40,000 lives.
The historic move came in response to an appeal by its jailed founder Abdullah Ocalan, arrested in 1999 and serving life in solitary ever since on a prison island near Istanbul.
Genc herself joined the militants in 1995 when she was a 20-year-old university student in Istanbul.
“At that time, many Kurdish villages were being burnt down, and we were constantly hearing about villages being evacuated, people being displaced and unsolved murders,” she said.
She described it as “a time of terrible repression.”
“You felt trapped, as if there was no other way than to join the guerrillas,” she said.
Four years later, after years in exile, Ocalan was snatched by Turkish commandos in a Hollywood-style operation in Nairobi.
“Ocalan’s capture provoked a deep sense of rage among the guerrillas, who feared it would mean the Kurdish cause would be destroyed,” she said.
But it was Ocalan himself who called for calm and insisted it was time for the Kurdish question to be resolved democratically. He urged his followers to go to Turkiye, hand over their weapons and seek dialogue.
“He thought our arrival would symbolize (the PKK’s) goodwill, and persuade the state to negotiate.”
Genc was part of the first so-called “groups for peace and a democratic solution” — a group of three women and five men who arrived in Turkiye on October 1, 1999 on what they knew would be a “sacrificial” mission.
After a long march through the mountains, they arrived in the southeastern village of Semdinli under the watchful eye of “thousands” of Turkish soldiers huddled behind rocks.
Handing over their weapons, they were transferred to the city of Van 200 kilometers (140 miles) to the north where they were arrested.
Genc spent the next nearly six years behind bars.
“For us, these peace groups were a mission,” she said. “The solution had to come through dialogue.”
After getting out, she continued to struggle for Kurdish rights, swapping her gun for a pen to become a journalist and researcher for the Sosyo Politik think tank.
Even so, her writing earned her another three-and-a-half years behind bars.
“Working for peace in Turkiye has a cost,” she said with a shrug.
When Recep Tayyip Erdogan became prime minister in 2003, there was hope for a new breakthrough. But several attempts to reach an agreement went nowhere — until now.
“Like in 1999, the PKK is moving toward a non-violent struggle,” she said.
“But laying down arms is not the end of the story. It is preparing to become a political organization.”
Resolving the decades-long conflict requires a change on both sides however, said Genc.
“It essentially involves a mutual transformation,” she argued.
“It is impossible for the state to stick with its old ways without transforming, while trying to resolve a problem as old and divisive as the Kurdish question.”
Despite the recent opening, Genc does not speak of hope.
“Life has taught us to be realistic: years of experience have generated an ocean of insecurity,” she said.
“(PKK fighters) have shown their courage by saying they will lay down their weapons without being defeated. But they haven’t seen any concrete results.”
So far, the government, which initiated the process last autumn, has not taken any steps nor made any promises, she pointed out.
“Why haven’t the sick prisoners been released? And those who have served their sentences — why aren’t they benefiting from the climate of peace?“
And Ocalan, she said, was still being held in solitary despite promises of a change in his situation.
The number of people jailed for being PKK members or close to the group has never been revealed by the Turkish authorities.
“The fact that Ocalan is still not in a position to be able to lead this process toward a democratic solution is a major drawback from the militants’ point of view,” she said.
“Even our daily life remains totally shaped by security constraints across the region with the presence of the army, the roadblocks — all that has to change.”
First class graduates from American University of Baghdad, once Saddam’s palace
- A total of 38 students — 20 male and 18 female — graduated Saturday with degrees in business administration, sciences and humanities at a ceremony attended by political dignitaries as well as families and faculty members
BAGHDAD: The American University of Baghdad celebrated the graduation of its first cohort of students Saturday at a campus that was once a palace built by Saddam Hussein.
Officials said they hope the graduation will mark the beginning of a new era in higher education in Iraq rooted in modernity, openness and international academic standards.
The university was inaugurated in 2021 on the site of the Al-Faw Palace, built on an island in the middle of an artificial lake by Saddam in the 1990s to mark the retaking of the peninsula of the same name during the war.
After the US-led invasion that unseated Saddam in 2003, it was used as a US coalition military headquarters called Camp Victory. It was later developed into an American-style university with a core liberal arts program through funding by influential Iraqi business owner Saadi Saihood.
A total of 38 students — 20 male and 18 female — graduated Saturday with degrees in business administration, sciences and humanities at a ceremony attended by political dignitaries as well as families and faculty members.
Speaking to the attendees, university President Dr. Michael Mulnix reflected on the university’s rocky beginnings.
“When I first arrived at the American University of Baghdad in 2018, the campus looked nothing like it does today,” he said. “Years of war and neglect had left the infrastructure in ruins, with many buildings damaged or destroyed. Today, we stand before an exceptional, nonprofit academic institution that ranks among the finest research universities.”
Today AUB has a growing network of international partnerships with top universities, he said, including Vanderbilt University, Colorado School of Mines, Lawrence Technological University, Temple University, the University of Exeter, and Sapienza University of Rome.
University founder and owner Saihood called the graduation “a symbolic moment that affirms this institution was built to last and to make a real difference.”
He acknowledged the economic challenges facing graduates, especially the scarcity of government employment, but emphasized that the university has equipped its students with the adaptability and initiative needed to thrive in the private sector or through entrepreneurship.
Although Iraq’s security situation has improved in recent years after decades of conflict, the country still suffers from brain drain as young people seek opportunities and stability abroad.
“The future in Iraq is not easy. All of us graduates have concerns,” said Mohammed Baqir from Najaf province, who graduated Saturday with a bachelor’s degree in business. “But what sets us apart from other universities is that we’ve already received job offers through AUB, especially in the private sector. Although my education cost around ten million Iraqi dinars, it was a truly valuable investment.” Ten million Iraqi dinars equals about $7,600.
Israel may change tack to allow aid groups in Gaza to stay in charge of non-food aid
- The group says it plans to handle food aid, initially from a handful of hubs in southern and central Gaza with armed private contractors that would guard the distribution
TEL AVIV, Israel: As pressure mounts to get more aid into Gaza, Israel appears to be changing tack and may let aid groups operating in the battered enclave remain in charge of non-food assistance while leaving food distribution to a newly established US-backed group, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
The development indicates Israel may be walking back from its plans to tightly control all aid to Gaza and prevent aid agencies long established in the territory from delivering it in the same way they have done in the past.
Israel accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid but the United Nations and aid groups deny there is significant diversion. The UN has rejected Israel’s plan, saying it allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates human humanitarian principles and won’t be effective.
Israel had blocked food, fuel, medicine and all other supplies from entering Gaza for nearly three months, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians there. Experts have warned of a high risk of famine and international criticism and outrage over Israel’s offensive has escalated.
Even the United States, a staunch ally, has voiced concerns over the hunger crisis.
The letter, dated May 22, is from Jake Wood, the head of the Israel-approved Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, and is addressed to COGAT, the Israeli military agency in charge of transferring aid to the territory.
It says that Israel and GHF have agreed to allow non-food humanitarian aid — from medical supplies to hygiene items and shelter materials — to be handled and distributed under an existing system, which is led by the United Nations. UN agencies have so far provided the bulk of the aid for Gaza.
The foundation would still maintain control over food distribution, but there would be a period of overlap with aid groups, the letter said.
“GHF acknowledges that we do not possess the technical capacity or field infrastructure to manage such distributions independently, and we fully support the leadership of these established actors in this domain,” it said.
The foundation confirmed the authenticity of the letter. A spokesman for GHF said the agreement with Israel came after persistent advocacy. While it acknowledged that many aid groups remain opposed to the plan, it said GHF will continue to advocate for an expansion of aid into Gaza and to allow aid groups’ work in the enclave to proceed.
COGAT declined to comment on the letter and referred the AP to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which did not respond to a request for comment.
UN officials also did not reply to requests for comment.
Unclear who is funding GHF
The GHF, which is not yet up and working in Gaza, is run by security contractors, ex-military officers and humanitarian aid officials, and has the backing of Israel.
The group says it plans to handle food aid, initially from a handful of hubs in southern and central Gaza with armed private contractors that would guard the distribution. Additional sites will be opened within a month, including in northern Gaza.
The letter says aid agencies will continue providing food assistance in parallel to the GHF until at least eight sites are up and running.
Aid groups have been pushing back on the GHF and Israel’s plans to take over the handling of food aid, saying it could forcibly displace large numbers of Palestinians by pushing them toward the distribution hubs and that the foundation doesn’t have the capacity to meet the needs of the Palestinians in Gaza.
It’s also unclear who is funding the GHF, which claims to have more than $100 million in commitments from a foreign government donor but has not named the donor.
’Functioning aid’
The letter says that GHF’s Wood was on a call with the CEOs of six aid groups discussing the new plans, including Save the Children, International Medical Corps, Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, CARE International and Project HOPE.
Rabih Torbay, head of Project HOPE, confirmed the call and said his organization was encouraged to hear that the delivery of medicines and other non-food items would continue under the current system.
Still, Torbay appealed for food aid to be allowed into Gaza without “obstruction or politicization.”
A spokesperson for CARE said it has shared its concerns regarding GHF’s proposal for food distribution in the hubs and reiterated the importance of using existing distribution mechanisms under the UN The spokesperson said the meeting was an opportunity to ask a lot of questions, but CARE’s attendance was not an endorsement of the effort.
Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel for the International Crisis Group, says the letter is a clear sign that both Israel and the GHF recognize the humanitarian catastrophe people face in Gaza and the need for immediate aid.
“The GHF and Israel are clearly scrambling to get something that works — or at least the appearance of functioning aid — and that this mechanism is not ready or equipped or fitting for the needs of the population in Gaza,” Zonszein said.
Ahmed Bayram, Middle East spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council, said that Israel is part of the conflict and should not be in control of the aid distribution.
“Israel interfering in parts or all of that process would be damaging to the independence and neutrality of humanitarian aid,” Bayram said.
Humanitarian principles
The GHF came under more scrutiny this week, with TRIAL International — a Geneva-based advocacy group focusing on international justice — saying Friday that it was taking legal action to urge Swiss authorities to monitor the group, which is registered in Switzerland.
The foundation’s spokesperson has insisted that it abides by humanitarian principles and operates free from Israeli control. The spokesperson, speaking anonymously under the foundation’s policy, told the AP earlier this week that it is not a military operation and that its armed security guards are necessary for it to work in Gaza.
The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 others. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
