Druze

Photos: Emily Glick, Yonatan Sindel, Abed Rahim Khatib (Flash90)

A year in +972: Editors’ picks for 2025

From nearly 250 pieces published this year, we’ve chosen eight stories that resonated most with our team.

By +972 Magazine December 31, 2025

A member of the Syrian security forces films the celebrations in Umayyad Square for the first anniversary of Assad's fall, in Damascus, Syria. (Santiago Montag)

Syria marks a year since Assad’s fall under shadow of Israel’s deepening occupation

As thousands filled the streets to celebrate liberation, others were reeling from Israel's latest raid and fearing for their safety amid sectarian tensions.

By Santiago Montag December 23, 2025

Syrian Druze head towards the border fence to pick up people crossing from the Israeli side, in the Syrian Jawlan, July 16, 2025. (Oren Ziv)

‘I haven’t been here in 40 years’: Emotional reunions as Druze cross Israel-Syria fence

After a protest breached the Jawlan barrier, Druze from both sides rushed to see relatives as police stood by — a glimpse of what the land was and could be.

By Oren Ziv July 18, 2025

Latest

An Israeli Merkava tank parked between Medinat al-Salam and Khan Arnabeh in Quneitra province, Syria, Jan. 5, 2025. (Tareq al-Salameh)

In southern Syria, a violent new Israeli occupation emerges

Israeli forces have advanced miles into Syrian territory — confiscating land and homes, killing farmers, and seeking to divide the region's diverse population.

By Santiago Montag April 10, 2025

Residents celebrate the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, in Majdal Shams, Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, December 9, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

For Syrians in the Golan, Assad’s fall sparks hope and uncertainty

Residents of the occupied Jawlan celebrated the regime's collapse, but remain wary amid political instability and further Israeli encroachment inside Syria.

By Baker Zoubi December 13, 2024

Mourners attend the funeral of children killed by an airstrike in Majdal Shams, occupied Golan Heights, July 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

‘The Golan won’t accept any killing or regional war in our victims’ names’

Israel’s exploitation of a rocket attack in Majdal Shams is the latest chapter of the Syrian Jawlan's ‘forgotten occupation,’ says activist Wael Tarabieh.

By Mariam Farah August 16, 2024

Attorneys arrive to the Supreme Court for a hearing on petitions put forth against the Jewish Nation-State Law, Jerusalem, December 22, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Nation-State Law had its day in court, as did the farce of Israeli democracy

During the hearing, the High Court justices saw no problem with demoting the status of Arabic and claimed that 'equality' is something best left for the future.

By Orly Noy December 24, 2020

An Israeli military police officer checks entry permits of Palestinians on a bus crossing the Allenby Bridge into Israel. (Moshe Milner/GPO)

What would Israelis do if Palestinians disappeared overnight?

Ibtisam Azem speaks to +972 about how, with the sudden vanishing of ‘the enemy’ in her newly-translated novel, she confronts some of the darkest chapters of Israel's history.

By Natasha Soffer-Roth November 11, 2019

Kamal Zidan and his grandmother pose for a photo before he presented himself at the Israeli army induction base. (Courtesy of the Zidan family)

Druze draft refuser sent to Israeli military prison, put in solitary

Druze-Arab men, unlike other Arab citizens of Israel, are subject to the same mandatory conscription as Jewish Israelis. Kamal Zidan is refusing because of his Palestinian identity. Kamal Zidan, an Arab-Druze citizen of Israel, presented himself at the Israeli army’s Tel HaShomer induction based last Sunday and declared that he refuses to be conscripted into the…

By Rami Younis April 22, 2019

Members of the Druze community in the Golan Heights protest the decision of President Donald Trump to recognize Israeli sovereignty in the territory, Majdal Shams, March 23, 2019. (Basel Awidat/Flash90)

Talk of Golan annexation leaves out those expelled from it

President Trump’s recognition of Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights has been widely celebrated by Israelis. But do those same Israelis know of the hundreds of thousands of people expelled from the territory during the 1967 war? By Tom Pessah The vast majority of Israelis are still unaware that over 130,000 residents of the Golan Heights were expelled from…

By +972 Magazine March 24, 2019

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked arrives to cast her vote during the party's preliminary elections, in Jerusalem, on April 27, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel’s justice minister wishes a happy Eid al-Adha — to Druze only

Ayelet Shaked sends a heartfelt message to the Druze community in Israel and across the world on the first day of Eid al-Adha, leaving out over a billion Muslims. By Oren Ziv More than 1.8 million Muslims are celebratuing Eid al-Adha, the “Festival of Sacrifice,” around the world this week. Social networks are full of non-Muslims — including Jews and…

By Oren Ziv August 22, 2018

Elders of the Israeli Druze community are seen at a mass protest against the 'Jewish Nation-State law' in Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, August 4, 2018. (Gili Yaari/Flash90)

What spurred Israel’s Druze to demand equality now?

For most of Israel’s minority groups, the Jewish Nation-State Law was far from surprising. But for many Druze citizens, who for decades have served in the military, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Eman Safady, like many Druze citizens of Israel, felt personally betrayed by the Jewish Nation-State Law. A journalist from…

By Henriette Chacar August 7, 2018

Tens of thousands of protesters joined the Druze community in rejecting the Jewish Nation-State Law at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on August 5, 2018. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Tens of thousands of Druze protest for equality in Tel Aviv

Demonstrators filled Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest the Jewish Nation-State Law and demand full equality. Will that be enough to pressure Netanyahu to backtrack? By Meron Rapoport Could it be that the “Israeli state” was born in Tel Aviv’s central square Saturday night? Perhaps it’s a bit early to say, but if…

By +972 Magazine August 5, 2018