From the Liveblog of
Friday, April 25, 2025
Hundreds of Syrian Druze clerics to visit Israel today for pilgrimage to sacred shrine
Hundreds of clerics from Syria’s Druze minority are heading to Israel where they will conduct a pilgrimage to a sacred shrine, the second such visit since longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad’s ouster last December.
The clerics from the esoteric, monotheistic faith, are to cross the border on foot, according to a Syrian official and a local news organisation, despite Israel and Syria being technically at war.
The delegation will visit the Nabi Shuaib shrine in northern Israel’s Galilee region, where an annual pilgrimage is held from April 25-28 each year.
Abu Yazan, the official from Hader on the Syrian Golan Heights, says that 400 clerics from his town and from the Damascus suburb of Jaramana will head to Israel after the Israeli authorities gave their approval.
Asking not to be identified by his full name, he says the trip is “purely religious” in nature.
Suwayda24, a news organisation from nearby Sweida province, says some 150 Druze clerics from that area would also participate.
The group notified the Syrian government of its plan to go to Israel, though it received no response, the website adds.
Unlike during a smaller visit to the shrine last month, the clerics will spend the night in Israel this time.
Abu Yazan, who is one of the participants, says that “we requested to stay for a week to visit the shrine” and other members of the religious community “but the Israeli side only authorised one night.”
The Druze are mainly divided between Syria, Israel and Lebanon.
They account for about three percent of Syria’s population and are heavily concentrated in the south.
Israel seized much of the strategic Golan Heights from Syria in a war in 1967, later annexing the area in 1981 in a move recognized by the US but not by most of the international community.
Following the ouster of Assad, Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Syria and sent troops into the demilitarized buffer zone of the Golan in southwest Syria.
Israeli authorities have since voiced support for Syria’s Druze, amid mistrust of the country’s new Islamist leaders.
The Times of Israel Community.