Taboo no more: One in five Golan Druze now holds Israeli citizenship
Requests for naturalization hit an all-time high as communities warm to the idea. While future trends are unpredictable, developments in Syria will have a huge impact
Against the backdrop of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, the fall of the Assad regime, and the tragic death of 12 Druze children in Majdal Shams in a Hezbollah rocket attack, the number of Druze residents applying for Israeli citizenship in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights might be a reflection of local sentiment — and perhaps also of attitudes on the nearby Syrian side of the volatile border.
Data obtained by Shomrim reveals that the number of citizenship applications in the Israeli Golan Heights remains at a historic high. Over 20 percent of Golan Druze hold Israeli citizenship, more than double than at the turn of the millennium.
The statistics were obtained from the Population and Immigration Authority thanks to a request filed through the Movement for Freedom of Information, an Israeli NGO that works to promote governmental transparency.
Israel captured much of the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six Day War; the post-war borders zig-zagged between Druze villages, cutting families and communities off from one another. When Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, it offered all residents Israeli citizenship, though only a small minority took it up. Recently, though, that number has grown.
The stats
Druze naturalizations peaked in 2022, when 438 citizenship requests were submitted, of which 419 were approved. In 2023, applications dipped slightly to 406, of which 389 were granted, and in the first 11 months of 2024, there were 352 requests, of which 318 were approved. Assuming the trend continued through the end of the year, 2024 likely ended with a similar number of requests as 2023.
Looking at the broader picture, over the past three years (2022-2024), Israel approved 1,126 citizenship requests from Druze in the Israeli Golan Heights, compared to just 539 in the five-year period between 2017 and 2021.
Based on data from the Population and Immigration Authority, approximately 6,000 of the over 29,000 Druze residents in the Golan Heights — about 20.45% — currently hold Israeli citizenship. Compared to 2022, this is an increase of around 3.6% of the total Druze community in the area. Part of this increase is the result of more applications being submitted and part is the result of couples with Israeli citizenship having children.
Complex history
While applying for Israeli citizenship has not been a rarity in the Druze community for many years, it is still something of a controversial issue. While there are no longer boycotts organized against those who apply for Israeli citizenship, as was the case for many years, it is still hard to find anyone willing to talk openly about their decision — and even within families, there is much secrecy surrounding the issue.
For the vast majority of the time since Israel occupied the Golan Heights, the Druze residents were fiercely loyal to the Syrian regime, for many and varied reasons, chief among which was the possibility that the territory could be returned to Syrian control as part of a peace treaty with Israel. The Assad regime — first under Hafez Assad and then his son, Bashar — ensured that Damascus’s relations with the Druze community in the Golan remained strong, in part by offering them generous financial incentives, such as importing massive quantities of apples from the Golan, subsidizing university studies in Syria for young Druze men and women and allowing family visits between the Israeli and Syrian Golan.
Despite the efforts of the Syrian regime, however, the attractiveness of these incentives wore off over the years. This led to a decline in agriculture in the Golan, while other economic sectors such as tourism and construction grew, strengthening the community’s ties with Israel. Moreover, the Syrian civil war made studying in Damascus a less attractive option and interfered with family visits.
This process, accompanied by a consistent increase in the number of requests for Israeli citizenship, unfolded to a large extent behind the scenes — at least until the issue was brought to the fore by the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught on southern Israel and a number of subsequent events.
For example, in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas invasion, Druze local authorities in the Golan set up armed rapid-response teams to defend their communities. In so doing, they openly cooperated with the IDF and the State of Israel, notwithstanding the heavy symbolism of working with the Israeli military and government. Another critical moment was the Hezbollah rocket attack that killed 12 children on a soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, which provoked massive anger toward the Assad regime — Hezbollah’s ally — as well as an expectation that Israel would take decisive action against those responsible for the tragedy.
The Syrian effect
Dr. Salim Brik, a researcher on Arab society and a political science lecturer at Haifa University and the Open University, believes that the main reason for the upward trend in citizenship requests is the assessment within the Druze community that Syria will not assume control of the Golan Heights any time soon. Another reason, he argues, is the demise of the once-fierce opposition within the community to taking Israeli citizenship and the absence of social sanctions for doing so. Now, he says, the issue of applying for Israeli citizenship is seen as a personal choice.
Dr. Yusri Hazran, a research fellow and senior lecturer at Shalem College, sees things differently. He says that there are four main reasons why Druze residents of the Golan Heights apply for Israeli citizenship: the ongoing decline in the political protest against Israel; the absence of an alternative to Israeli rule, coupled with the fresh understanding that Assad’s successors in Syria are bad news for the Druze community; integration into the Israeli economy; and a desire to study in Israeli academic institutions.
“The Druze see their mother country disintegrating with the fall of the Assad regime and they are looking for an anchor,” he says, pointing to the rapid-response teams as a significant example of the change. “I believe that the upward trend in citizenship requests will continue. I can’t think of anything that would change the graph in the coming years. On the contrary, I estimate that a further increase is expected.”
All of the researchers with whom Shomrim spoke were of the opinion that the fall of the Assad regime was a moment of historic significance for the Druze and will have a long-term effect on their naturalization. Whether or not the new regime is less oppressive and whether this will change the trend remains to be seen.
Dr. Tayer Abu Salah is an international relations researcher and the head of the Golan Association for the Development of Arab Villages who lives in Majdal Shams. He says that the number of naturalizations surprised him — but only because he expected them to be higher. Based on his familiarity with the community, he explains that in recent weeks the Druze have been analyzing events in Syria and hoping for positive developments. What unfolds on the Syrian front will have a massive impact on their future in general and on the naturalization issue in particular.
Asked what the Druze community’s considerations are when analyzing the Syrian situation, Abu Salah mentions regional alliances which will become reality under pressure from US President-elect Donald Trump, moderate comments from Syria’s new leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, and Israel’s record of withdrawing from territory it captured during the Six Day War.
“If what happens in Syria is positive, it will have a positive impact on the Golan — and vice versa,” says Abu Salah. “In any case, it must be pointed out that, even after 57 years of Israeli occupation, most of the Druze community in the Golan is still loyal to their country of birth, which is Syria.”
