Election day quiet among Golan Heights Druze

By Lazar Berman

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1 November 2022, 3:27 pm

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Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Buqata residents sit outside the polling station at the local high school on November 11, 2022 (Lazar Berman/Times of Irael)

Election Day is quiet in Buqata, one of the four Druze towns in the Golan Heights. There are no campaign signs hanging at intersections, and many young residents are not sure which school contains the local polling stations.

Local restaurants serve Jewish Israelis taking advantage of the day off to tour the area.

In a high school on the western edge of the village, a mile from the Syrian border, the two polling stations are quiet. As of 2 p.m., only 74 of the over 700 eligible voters in Buqata have cast their ballots.

Only about 10% of the residents have taken Israeli citizenship, which gives them the right to vote in national elections. That is similar to the percentage in the neighboring Druze communities of Majdal Shams, Masade, and Ein Qiniyye, all of which were part of Syria until Israel conquered the Golan Heights in 1967.

Majdal Shams resident Niban tells The Times of Israel at the Buqata polling station that she had already voted, but declined to share for whom. She expects this round of elections to see even fewer Golan Druze voting than usual.

“There are people who do vote usually, but this year people don’t really want to get involved in politics,” she says. “There many things that they promise and don’t do. Now, around the time of elections, they promise things, then afterwards, nothing.”

Niban says that security is the most important political issue for her: “Living in this place here on the border, security is important for us.”

Majdal Shams has around 1,300 eligible voters, out of a population of over 12,000.
Her husband Samr, a travel agent and apple farmer, is overseeing the Buqata polling stations.

“In general, most people here tend toward the right,” he says, adding that there are also Meretz voters, partly because of candidate Ali Salalha, from the Druze village of Beit Jann in the Galilee.

Majid, 55, a security guard from Buqata, has not gotten citizenship, and as such does not vote. “At my age, I don’t see that it’s important to me.”

Still, he says that he wants to see Benjamin Netanyahu emerge victorious. “In coronavirus, in other places, he proved himself,” he says, adding that most of his Druze friends agree.