Druze mayor in Israeli Golan backs IDF's military operations in Syria

The mayor of the Druze town Majdal Shams in Israel's Golan Heights, explained the complex ties between the Druze population and the State of Israel in an exclusive interview with The Media Line published on Sunday. Mayor Dolan Abu Saleh also addressed how the recent collapse of the Assad regime in Syria impacts the Druze population on both sides of the border.

“For every family here, there’s family on the other side,” Saleh explained. “The people here are very, very happy that the dictator, the murderer of the people, is no longer in power. They hope there will be a new Syria of peace, humanity, and human rights.”

While the Syrian Civil War lasted for over a decade, the mayor argued that it was only after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre that the local Druze population felt threatened by Iranian-backed terrorists on the Syrian side of the border.

“Until October 7, the civil war in Syria did not pose a significant threat to residents of the Golan,” Saleh said. “Hezbollah operated freely in Syria under Assad,” he continued, referring to Iran’s most powerful terrorist proxy in Lebanon. “All this time, we saw cooperation between Hezbollah and Assad.”

In late July, 12 local Druze children were killed when a Hezbollah rocket struck them while they were playing soccer in the northern Israeli town of Majdal Shams.

Israel captured the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War of 1967 while defending itself.

The Jewish state officially annexed the Golan Heights territory in 1981 and offered citizenship to the local Druze population. However, the majority have not accepted Israeli citizenship, fearing it would deepen their separation from Druze family members and relatives on the Syrian side of the border.

However, Saleh said he strongly identifies with Israel, calling himself a “proud Israeli.”

“I love this place very much. I love to be part of society in the State of Israel,” Saleh shared. “Both personally and as a community, we want to feel an indivisible part of the State of Israel, not only in name, but also through receiving budgets and sharing resources from the state, and that this feeling will be mutual and not one-sided.”

Many Arab diplomats and some European officials recently criticized Israel’s decision to seize the strategically important buffer zone between Israel and Syria to prevent anti-Israel Jihadists from threatening the security of Israeli border communities.

The Druze mayor strongly backs the IDF's military operation in Syria.

“The State of Israel needs to create a barrier that will protect its residents and citizens,” Saleh assessed. “If the State of Israel is threatened in the future, it can manage the war outside its borders. That means that before its residents and citizens are harmed, it will be there to protect them,” he added.

The fall of the Assad regime, led by deposed President Bashar al-Assad, has heightened fears among the Syrian Druze population of being attacked by local Islamist terrorists.

In early December, a local speaker in the Syrian Druze village of Hader called for annexation to Israel, citing concerns about jihadist threats

“In the name of all the people of Hader, and if anyone objects, please say… if we have to choose, we will choose the lesser evil – to be annexed to the (Israeli) Golan!” the Druze speaker told the local audience, warning that “the other evil coming our way” adding that they would “take our wives, our daughters, our homes.”

Meanwhile, while welcoming the fall of the Assad regime, the Majdal Shams mayor on the Israeli side stressed that the town should be linked to Israel rather than Syria for its security.

“But we, as a local authority that is under Israeli sovereignty, want to see here in the state of Israel the flag of the State of Israel, because the State of Israel is the one that gives us security,” he concluded.