Katz says Israel will soon allow Syrian Druze to work in the Golan Heights
Announcement comes as Israeli politicians lambast Syrian transitional government for reported mass killings, urge European states to ‘wake up’ and stop granting regime legitimacy
Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Sunday that Israel would soon allow Syrian Druze to enter the country for work, months after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.
The announcement came following reports last month that the Israel Defense Forces had begun staff work on a pilot program that would allow Druze living in southern Syria — close to the border with Israel — to work in Israeli towns in the Golan Heights.
Katz said in a statement that he “salutes” members of the Druze and Circassian communities in Israel for “their loyalty and bravery and their contribution to Israel’s security in difficult and crucial times.”
“We will continue to strengthen them and also protect their brethren in Syria against any threat,” he said, adding that “we will soon also allow Druze laborers from Syria to come to work in the Golan Heights communities in Israel.”
The program was initiated by Golan Druze, who asked Israeli security officials and the military to assist their brethren over the border, according to a report last month by the Kan public broadcaster. The plan was being drawn up by Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, who heads the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and is Druze himself.
The initial stage would see dozens of Syrian Druze working in construction and agriculture in Golan Druze towns, according to the report.
Katz’s remarks came as the government touted a recently approved five-year plan for the Druze and Circassian communities in Israel, and a few days after Katz publicly accused Syria’s transitional leadership of atrocities against civilians.
Responding to reports that forces allied with Syria’s new Islamist leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, killed hundreds of civilians while putting down an insurgency by fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect, Katz castigated Sharaa as a “jihadist terrorist.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar echoed Katz’s sentiments in a Sunday interview with Germany’s Bild newspaper, urging Europe to “stop granting legitimacy” to Syria’s transitional authorities in light of the reported mass killings.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor has reported that 745 Alawite civilians were killed in Latakia and Tartus provinces. The fighting has also killed 125 members of the security forces and 148 pro-Assad fighters, according to the Observatory, taking the overall death toll to 1,018.
“Europe must not fail in reading the reality,” Sa’ar said. “It must wake up. It must stop granting legitimacy to a regime whose first actions — unsurprising, given its well-known terrorist background — are these atrocities.”
Israeli leaders have publicly warned Syria’s government not to harm the Druze in southwestern Syria and have regularly spoken with foreign leaders about the importance of protecting them, along with Syria’s Kurds.
The same day that Assad was ousted in Syria, Israel sent its troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces on the strategic Golan Heights, where it maintains a military presence.
Also on Sunday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir visited troops inside southern Syria, the military said.
The IDF said Zamir toured the area and held an assessment with officers, including the chief of the Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, and the commander of the 210th Bashan Regional Division, Brig. Gen. Yair Peli.
The IDF has described its presence in southern Syria’s buffer zone as a temporary and defensive measure, though Katz has said that troops will remain deployed to nine army posts in the area “indefinitely.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month that southern Syria must be completely demilitarized, warning that Israel would not accept the presence of the forces of the new Syrian Islamist-led government near its territory.
Earlier this month, Netanyahu and Katz instructed the IDF to “prepare to defend” the Druze-majority city of Jaramana on the outskirts of Damascus in Syria, as regime forces clashed there with local Druze gunmen in early March.
Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the lightning offensive that toppled Assad in December, has its roots in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda and remains proscribed as a terrorist organization by many governments including the United States.
But Syria’s new leaders have been clamoring for the West to loosen sanctions imposed on Assad’s regime during the country’s civil war. Last month the European Union eased sanctions on Syria’s energy, transport and banking sectors in a bid to help the country’s reconstruction.
