The Majdal Shams incident, in which a missile struck a football pitch killing 12 children on 27 July, has focused international attention on the Occupied Golan Heights and the circumstances of its indigenous Syrian Druze inhabitants.

Israel immediately blamed Hizbullah for the deaths of the children at what was clearly a civilian target. Then, without pausing for breath, it used these deaths as a pretext to escalate the conflict, breaching the rules of engagement that have so far kept the skirmishes along the Lebanese-Israeli border from spiralling out of control.

Hizbullah has vehemently denied targeting the Arab village, arguing that the projectile that fell on the pitch was probably one of the missiles used by Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defence system to intercept Hizbullah missiles and drones.

Before the Israeli occupation in June 1967, the Golan had a population of around 138,000 Syrian Druze, Christians, and Muslims. The Israeli invasion and occupation displaced 131,000 of these people to other parts of Syria, mostly to the area around Damascus.

The remaining Druze population of about 7,000 at the time refused to leave for fear that they would not be able to return to their land. This was not the first time the people of Golan have suffered invasion and displacement. The consequences of the Great Syrian Revolution in 1925, when the Syrian people rose up against the then French occupation, were still fresh in their minds.

There is a curious story behind the Israeli occupation of the Golan. Former Syrian officers who served in the vicinity of the town of Quneitra have related that the news of the fall of the Golan to Israel was broadcast on Syrian radio about five hours before the Israeli army reached the Heights.

That news report was a main reason why the Syrian brigade defending the Golan at Quneitra withdrew after communications were severed between it and the Syrian command. The local population then fled. The other approximately 223 villages in the Golan experienced the full thrust of the Israeli army’s terror and destruction, displacing their inhabitants northwards towards Damascus.

Today, the Druze population in the Golan is about 23,000, while the Golan Druze diaspora is estimated at around 600,000. Those who remain are distributed among six villages, the largest of which is Majdal Shams with a population of 12,000. By dint of historical experience and tradition the Druze in Majdal Shams are a tightly knit community gathered around their religious leaders who take decisions of collective concern, while those who reject these decisions are cast out.

The Syrian Druze in the Golan have endured considerable hardship under the Israeli occupation, which precludes normal life. Regardless of Israel’s de facto annexation of their territory, they continue to identify as Syrian and long to see the liberation of the Golan, like their sister town of Quneitra, which was liberated under the 1974 Syrian-Israeli disengagement agreement.

In 1981, Israel passed its Golan Heights law that extended Israeli law to the Occupied Territory in violation of international law. Local Druze movements proliferated, protesting against the Israelification of their land and rejecting Israeli citizenship. Israel rescinded the decision to impose citizenship and instead offered citizenship to those who requested it.

The Golan residents, collectively determined to cling to their Syrian identity, rejected the offer, even if it deprived them of the freedom of movement to be had with a passport. However, to conduct day-to-day affairs, they had to obtain an identity card, though this does not state nationality. Their status is therefore akin to a permanent resident and, accordingly, they are not required to serve in the Israeli army and are not entitled to vote in Israeli elections.

In this respect, the Syrian Druze of the Golan differ from the Druze of Galilee and Carmel who descend from the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine who remained in their villages during the Nakba in 1948. These Druze gradually integrated into Israeli society, acquiring citizenship like other Arabs of 1948, but unlike these they agreed to serve in the Israeli army.

The main economic activity of the Golan Druze is agriculture due to the fertility of the soil, abundant water, and good weather. A main crop is apples. One of Israel’s ways of collectively punishing the Golan Druze for resisting Israelification was to prohibit the sale of their apples in Israeli markets. Thanks to the intercession of the Red Cross, an agreement was reached between Tel Aviv and Damascus making it possible for the Golan Druze to sell their apples in Syria.

Again in violation of international law, Israel has transferred some 25,000 settlers to the Golan. Establishing themselves in some 30 settlements, these settlers have built rival farms cultivating apples and other fruit while simultaneously restricting the right of the indigenous inhabitants to build refrigeration facilities and upgrade irrigation systems.

The settler farmers have access to broader markets in Israel, while the Golan Syrian farmers’ access to markets has shrunk. In Palestine, the market for their products became unstable due to the Intifada and the deteriorating security situation in the West Bank. While the trade deals with Syria via Quneitra continued regularly after 2005 under the auspices of the Red Cross, the system fell apart soon after the outbreak of the Civil War in Syria when parts of the country broke away from the control of the central government.

The last formal deal, for an estimated 14 tons of fruit, occurred in 2013.

Educational advancement is difficult for Syrians in the Golan. Students cannot pursue their higher education if they refuse to enroll in Israeli universities on principle, and they cannot attend universities abroad due to the difficulty of obtaining travel documents.

Again thanks to the Red Cross, an agreement was worked out with Damascus making it possible for Syrian students from the Golan to cross into Syria through Quneitra to attend a university in Syria. Between 1997 and 2011, some 400 students a year were able to attend university courses in Syria. After graduation, they could then return to Golan to serve their community, unless they chose to pursue a career in Damascus.

Unfortunately, this avenue nearly collapsed due to the Civil War in Syria. The number of Golan Syrians studying at university in Syria has plummeted due to the precarious security situation and the shifts in territorial control between the government and rebel groups. So, once again, the horizons have closed off for Golan Syrians, placing them in the difficult position of having to choose between their right to adhere to their national identity and the need to educate their children.

In the face of such pressures, some Druze families have accepted Israeli citizenship and had their children learn Hebrew so they could obtain Israeli certificates that might eventually open the doors even to European universities. Even so, only an estimated 20 per cent of Druze in the Golan have acquired Israeli citizenship.

In response to the 1981 Golan Heights law, the UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 497 condemning Israeli attempts to alter the status of the Golan and declaring its actions “null and void and without international legal effect.”

In 2019, the US Trump administration unilaterally recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, but all other members of the international community have continued to abide by international law and consider the Golan to be Syrian territory under Israeli military occupation. The Trump administration’s action in 2019 sparked a new wave of rejection of Israeli identity and Israelification by the indigenous people of the Golan.

This history puts the Majdal Shams incident into perspective. Israel has seized the opportunity to pretend to champion Syrian civilians under its military occupation so it can use them as a pretext to escalate the conflict with Hizbullah and expand the war. Hizbullah, which readily acknowledges the strikes it is responsible for, denies its responsibility for the Majdal Shams missile.

The Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has upheld Hizbullah’s position, stating that Israel’s accusation against Hizbullah is a complete fabrication concocted with the intent to broaden the war in the region. Jumblatt went further to praise the people of Majdal Shams for refusing to be lured into letting Israel use them for its nefarious purposes.

The residents of Majdal Shams showed their true spirit when they drove far-right Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich from the funeral square and greeted Netanyahu’s fleeting visit to their village with signs saying “no to child killers!”

While it is encouraging that the Golan Syrians have belied Israeli propaganda and refused to let their tragedy be used for Israeli photo opportunities, the danger of a full-scale Israeli assault against Lebanon remains. Many governments have already begun to prepare for the scenario, advising their nationals to leave Lebanon.

Air traffic has been suspended at Beirut Airport, expressing the general apprehension as people attempt to predict the scale of the Israeli attack and then the scale of Hizbullah’s response.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 1 August, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly