The Druze Massacre in Syria Proves We Must Find Ways to Protect Minorities in the Middle East

A humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in southern Syria, in the heart of the Sweida province — the homeland of the Druze community. The people in Sweida are still paying decades after Western powers carved out artificial nation-states across the Middle East.

Hundreds of bodies — men, women, children, and the elderly — have recently been brought to the only remaining functional hospital in Sweida. Some corpses were just left in the street due to lack of space. Doctors were brutally murdered. One was reportedly killed while performing surgery, another shot in front of his children. Eyewitnesses report that forces carried out executions, desecrated corpses, looted homes, and set neighborhoods on fire. In a symbolic and degrading act, Druze religious leaders had their mustaches forcibly shaved — an insult reminiscent of the humiliations endured by Polish Jews following the Nazi invasion in 1939.

What began as a local skirmish between Sunni Bedouin tribes and armed Druze fighters quickly escalated into a full-scale onslaught by forces loyal to Syria’s de facto ruler, Ahmad al-Sharaa, that ordered the uprising to be crushed with an iron fist. A whole community was plunged into anarchy and targeted violence.

Some 125,000 Druze live in Israel today. They are loyal citizens who serve in the IDF, lead municipalities, and are integrated in every aspect of Israeli public life. Many are closely following the events across the border. Some young Druze Israelis even attempted to cross into Syria to aid their brethren, risking confrontations with IDF soldiers. Israeli Druze leaders, along with security officials, have worked hard to contain the situation and prevent further escalation.

The US recently brokered a ceasefire between Israel and the al-Sharaa regime, with backing from Jordan and Turkey. Yet what is being celebrated as a diplomatic breakthrough risks becoming a moral failure if it is not followed by a concrete plan to protect minorities.

A tweet from US Ambassador Tom Barrack — “We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity…” — reveals a deep misunderstanding of Syrian realities. There is no such thing as a “united Syrian identity” — there never was, and there likely never will be. Calling on targeted minorities to disarm, with no clear mechanism for their protection, is to abandon them to slaughter.

Like Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon, Syria is a colonial fabrication — an artificial state imposed on a patchwork of sects, tribes, and rival ethnicities. King Faisal I, a Hashemite with no local roots, came from the Hejaz and was installed on Syria’s throne by French decree. From that day to this, Syria has never known lasting stability. An Alawite minority, making up roughly 15% of the population, has ruled through brute force over Sunnis, Kurds, Assyrians, Christians, and Druze alike. There is no “Syrian people” — only a crumbling mosaic of communities clinging to ancient survival strategies.

The only viable way to guarantee the safety of the Druze and other minorities is to support, openly or discreetly, the establishment of a Druze autonomous zone in Jabal al-Druze. Such an entity existed between 1921 and 1936, and similar proposals were floated in Israel during the late 1960s. A fractured multi-tribal state cannot ensure safety for anyone — but a decentralized Syrian confederation, in the style of Switzerland or the UAE, just might.

The State of Israel, which refrained from sending ground troops into Syria but acted in the air to defend the Druze, must now take a clear political stance: no more clinging to the failed ideal of “one Syria.” Instead, Israel should promote a viable cantonal solution that allows minorities to govern themselves securely.

The West, having carelessly created Syria, must understand: asking the Druze to “unite with the Sunnis” under an imagined national identity is to repeat a century old political and moral crime. Ambassador Barrack’s tweet, urging minorities to lay down their arms and rally around a fictitious “unified Syrian identity” echoes the very illusion that plunged Syria, Iraq, and Libya into chaos. If this is the best path Western diplomacy has to offer, then we are on the wrong track.

We, the Jews of Israel, cannot stand idly by while our Druze brothers and sisters are massacred just 40 miles from our border. This is not just a matter of solidarity, it is a matter of conscience. A people that has endured genocide cannot allow another to fall victim to mass slaughter, especially a community to whom the State of Israel owes so much — on the battlefield, in civil society, and in our shared vision of genuine partnership. Silence now will be remembered not only as a moral failure, but as a betrayal to its own citizens.

Itamar Tzur is the author of The Invention of the Palestinian Narrative and an Israeli scholar specializing in Middle Eastern history. He holds a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Jewish History and a Master’s degree with honors in Middle Eastern studies. As a senior member of the “Forum Kedem for Middle Eastern Studies and Public Diplomacy,” he leverages his academic expertise to deepen understanding of regional dynamics and historical contexts.

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