Fearing Islamist rebels, Syrian Druze village calls to be annexed to Israel, calling it the ‘lesser evil’

An unverified video circulating on social media purports to show a member of the Druze community in the southern Syrian village of Hader calling for the community to be annexed to the Israeli side of the Golan Heights.

Although the speech is in Arabic, a version of the video was posted on X with English captions.

Speaking to a large crowd, the man tells them to consider what they want their future to look like following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime earlier this week.

“If we have to choose, we will choose the lesser evil,” he says. “And even if it’s considered evil to ask to be annexed to the [Israeli] Golan, it’s a much lesser evil than the evil coming our way.”

He appears to be referring to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the largest of Syria’s rebel groups, which has its roots in al-Qaeda although it has sought to moderate itself in recent years.

“That evil might take our women, might take our daughters, they might take our houses,” he says, according to the captions.

“Bashar al-Assad left,” he continues. “What do we have left? Nothing.”

“We asked to be annexed to the Golan to preserve our dignity,” he says, adding that he speaks for the Druze community across the surrounding area of the Quneitra Governorate.

“We ask in the name of all the surrounding area to join our people in the Golan, and to live with freedom and dignity like our people are living [in Israel].

He calls for the Syrian Druze to be freed from the “injustice and oppression” that was first imposed on them by the Assad regime, and which they fear will soon be imposed on them again by the Islamist rebel groups.

“How many of us have died?” he asks. “We’ve given enough. We’re not willing to offer anything more.”

The Druze of Mt. Hermon have officially requested to be annexed to Israel. pic.twitter.com/X6qTnZXhzP

— Mira ⛥ (@MiraMedusa) December 13, 2024

Hader, and the villages surrounding it, are located within the buffer zone between Israel and Syria which IDF troops entered on Sunday following the fall of Assad. The majority of Druze do not reside in the Syrian Golan.

According to the last reliable census, taken in 2010 before the outbreak of the civil war, around 48% of Syria’s Druze resided in the Suwayda Governorate, some 90 kilometers from the border with Israel. Another 35% were living in Damascus, and 25,000 were located in the Idlib Governate.

However, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy noted in 2016 that the civil war significantly altered the demographic makeup of Syria, and many Druze fled Damascus for safer parts of the country.