Israeli Druze leader demands world do more to help Druze in Syria’s Sweida

Israeli Druze leader Sheikh Muafak Tarif calls on US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and UN Secretary-General António Guterrres to demand the entry of humanitarian aid for the Druze in Syria.

Speaking to The Times of Israel in a war room set up in the Druze village of Julis in the Galilee, Tarif says, “I call on the world to stop the killing of our Druze brothers and sisters.”

“Our people are being subjected to ethnic cleansing and systematic murder, and the world is silent,” he adds.

Tarif says that in Sweida province, the heartland of Syria’s Druze minority, 1,800 civilians have been killed, and 557 Druze men, women and children have been kidnapped. Some 223,000 people have been displaced from their homes.

“Their water supply has been poisoned,” he says. “Their houses have been burnt. There is no food or medicine and the dead are lying in the street.”

The situation is “catastrophic,” he says.

“I issue an urgent appeal to world leaders to stop the massacres before it is too late,” he says, demanding assurances that minorities in Syria can “live in peace.”

He adds: “You don’t have the right to kill me because I am a minority. I have the right to be different.”