Julis, Israel – In the quiet Galilee village of Julis, Israeli Druze volunteers are busy collecting food donations and gathering information to support members of the minority community in Syria reeling from deadly sectarian violence.
Sweida, a Druze-majority province in southern Syria, saw a week of deadly clashes last month, which a war monitor said killed more than 1,400 people, mostly from the religious group that is spread across parts of Syria, Israel, Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The violence had ended with a ceasefire, but Tarif deplored the fact the the main highway to Sweida has remained blocked, effectively leaving Druze communities under siege.
Some of the volunteers in Julis are working a call centre to gather the latest information from inside Syria, while others coordinate aid collection and distribution, and a media group runs an online campaign to raise awareness to the plight of Syria’s Druze.
The first humanitarian aid convoy made it to Sweida on July 20 as calm returned, but further deliveries have been slow to reach the province where the International Committee of the Red Cross reported “extremely difficult circumstances”, empty shelves in shops and repeated power cuts.
According to the UN, some 175,000 residents of Sweida have been displaced.
‘Came right away’
In Julis, eager to help, Sleeman Amer told AFP that “as soon as we heard that a situation room was being held here, we came right away.”
A day after spending six hours volunteering at the centre, the 35-year-old engineer was back.
Looking at a map of the Syrian Druze heartland of Sweida, he said his team was helping to “gather information and do some research — how many villages were attacked? How many were killed? How many were kidnapped?”
Israel, which is home to more than 150,000 Druze including those in the occupied Golan Heights, has presented itself as a defender of the minority group and bombed Syrian government forces during the clashes in Sweida.
Community members in Israel have led demonstrations, and some even crossed into Syria, despite no peace between the two countries that last went to war in 1973.
“Living as Druze in Israel, you have the power to influence things… because it’s a democratic place”, said Akram, a volunteer who gave only his first name for privacy concerns.
He decried a lack of international attention and support, and expressed his fear that Syria’s Islamist leaders had not broken with their jihadist past.
On the community centre’s walls, posters of Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who assumed power after the overthrow of Bashar al-Asaad in December, describe him as “a terrorist in a suit”, echoing official Israeli talking points.
At a nearby warehouse, Israeli Jews and religious Druze — wearing their traditional white caps for men and white veils for women — were among dozens preparing parcels of food and diapers.
‘Shared humanity’
“Today we’re shipping the aid with the help of planes… and there’s aid that we purchase and send through the Red Crescent,” Sheikh Tarif said.
AFP could not independently confirm how aid from Israel has reached Sweida. Israel’s health ministry has shared images on social media of aid pallets it said had been parachuted into the area.
Akram, who has recently completed his service in the Israeli army, described the Julis situation room as “half-civilian”, with some volunteers like him using their military experience and know-how for information gathering and logistics.
The Israeli government has made contact with the Islamist-led authorities in Damascus, but has treaded with caution.
Some analysts say Israel is using the Druze as a pretext to pursue its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces far from their shared frontier.
But in Julis, residents who came to help did so with a sense of collective responsibility.
“Even if it’s in another country, this is our community,” said a young student who did not give her name.
Sheikh Anwar Hamudi, 62, told AFP that “with our shared humanity, we have to stand by them and help as much as we can.”
