Grieving Druze town Majdal Shams sends message of peace: 'We don’t want more crying mothers’
Despite losing 12 children in gruesome attack, Druze mayor emphasized reconciliation and peace
The northern reaches of Israel have been off-limits to most Israelis for over nine months now. Driving north from the center of the country, one is keenly aware of the invisible line dividing relatively “safe,” central Israel, from the portion of the nation that has come under incessant rocket fire from Lebanon these past months.
Heading northeast from the coastal plane, the imaginary line is passed around the area of Golani Junction, where one of the deepest Hezbollah attacks yet damaged the IDF’s "Sky Dew" surveillance balloon, which used to be visible while driving east on Highway 77.
While Metula in the Upper Galilee is Israel’s northernmost town, Majdal Shams lies almost as far north. It rests at the foot of Mount Hermon in the northern Golan Heights, positioned at an elevation of 1,130 meters (3,710 feet) above sea level.
Majdal Shams is one of five Druze towns located on the strategically important plateau. When Israel captured the Golan from Syria during the Six-Day War of 1967, much of the area’s Syrian population fled, but the residents of the five towns decided to stay.
Since then, the Golan Druze community has lived in a legal limbo, with many residents staying in close connection to family members in Syria, and most declining Israeli citizenship, despite repeated offers. Unlike their Druze brothers in the Galilee, only a small minority serves in the military.
So when the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah shot an Iranian-made rocket at the town’s soccer field over a week ago, killing 12 children and wounding dozens more, a neutral observer might not have been surprised to see a muted Israeli response.
Instead, Israel’s society erupted in outrage and pain over the slain children, many of whom might not have held Israeli citizenship at all. This felt like an attack on all Israelis.
Visiting the town just a few days after, both the town’s grief and the deep sympathy of Israeli society were readily visible.
Driving north, the number of cars dwindles, but blackened areas indicating recent fires – many caused by Hezbollah rockets – become more frequent.
Along the roads, many local Jewish communities fly Druze flags or put up signs expressing their condolences to the families of Majdal Shams.
Some days after the tragedy, the small town’s winding roads were still draped in black flags of mourning, and the site of the massacre was adorned by numerous wreaths, expressing the sympathy of various Israeli political parties and institutions.
The group of foreign journalists traveling to Majdal Shams that day was met by local Mayor Dolan Abu Saleh near the site of the rocket impact.
The relatively young leader deeply impressed the assembled reporters with a moving message, acknowledging the pain but dismissing sentiments of revenge or retaliation, focusing instead on peace and reconciliation.
“We are feeling this weight in our shoulders, we feel this pain with the families who lost their dearest ones, the families who now have wounded in the hospitals. This is a catastrophe, not just of Majdal Shams, this is a catastrophe for Israel and the whole world.”
“When you talk to [the families], they aim for an agreement, for peace, love, calm and security. They don't seek war, or a response inside Lebanon, or a response that will bring about more crying mothers. We don't want that someone else would experience what we do now,” he stressed.
“We, and the families who lost their dear ones, turn to the whole world to say: If the children we lost will be the message for peace, and if here, with this horrific incident, it will stop and everyone will have security - we will accept it,” the mayor declared.
Many of the questions directed to Abu Saleh focused on what the local residents thought of how the State of Israel should act now – respond in a harsh way that would risk total escalation, or perhaps, consider pursuing a diplomatic solution instead.
Just hours later, the IDF would kill Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, who was reportedly responsible for the deadly strike on Majdal Shams.
Earlier in the day, Mayor Abu Saleh reiterated several times that he and his town sought only peace and preferred a diplomatic resolution.
“War is a loss for everyone,” he declared. “I’m very much for an agreement that will promise security to all the north and the whole country of Israel, and that this agreement will have international guarantees to ensure that the signees of the documents will fulfill it.”
Emphasizing the close-knit character of his town, Abu Saleh stressed that for him, all the victims were family, before adding, “To be more exact, there are 4 dead from my family, the broader Abu Saleh family. There are also wounded from my family.”
“Despite our strength and organization… it will take some time to get over this,” he added.
Notably, Abu Saleh didn’t join the mainstream of Israeli politics today by criticizing the government for its response to the tragedy, despite some residents shouting down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several ministers when they came to visit the town.
“For now, we are getting help from all government agencies, there is no agency that hasn’t come here with a professional team, expressed willingness and offered support,” he said, before emphasizing his own responsibilities.
He said it was now up to the local council to develop programs that use the offered funds and support to help the community in the best possible way.
Abu Saleh also commented on the complicated situation of the Golan Druze, noting that only about 20% of them hold Israeli citizenship.
While hinting that some complaints had not been addressed by the government, he nevertheless noted that in terms of personal security, the Druze in the Golan Heights were living in an significantly better situation than their relatives in Syria.
“We’re trying to design an equal framework, from which we're still far away, but for now, the people here live under a democratic system, the like of which there is no other in the region, and this influences their feeling of belonging very much.”
“Israel is responsible for all Druze people” in the country, Hamada Ghanam, a former IDF officer and Druze from the Galilee, had told the journalists during the bus ride north.
He emphasized that the Druze community's close, almost mystical connection to their homeland explains why they don’t rush to evacuate from their homes, despite the threat from Hezbollah.
Another former IDF officer, Gideon Harari, would later tell journalists that this was exactly the goal of Hezbollah: To make residents of Israel, including the Druze, flee from their land and leave the country to fall into the terrorists' hands.
Despite being only a few kilometers from Syria and Lebanon, Majdal Shams falls just outside of the strip along the Israel-Lebanon border that was evacuated by the government after Oct. 7.
Israel’s Druze community feel as one, have the same mentality and support each other, Ghanem asserted.
Later in the day, Ghanem's son Eyal spoke to the journalists. He was on leave from the war in Gaza, where he serves as a reserve soldier in the Givati Brigade’s reconnaissance battalion.
He highlighted how his Druze upbringing aligned with the IDF's values to take every possible measure to avoid harming civilians, in stark contrast to Hezbollah's actions, as he pointed out.
Eyal added that as a Druze and as an IDF soldier, he was doing “everything possible to avoid war and reach peace.”
He is a prime example of what one journalist called “Israelization,” in the sense of the integration of the Druze community into Israeli society.
If there is anything good that could arise from this tragedy, it might be a growing sense of belonging and integration among the Golan’s Druze within Israeli society.
“Call it ‘Israelization,’ that’s your issue, I call it something else,” Abu Saleh responded. “I call it a covenant of life, partnership, that’s what I call it.”
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Hanan Lischinsky has a Master’s degree in Middle East & Israel studies from Heidelberg University in Germany, where he spent part of his childhood and youth. He finished High School in Jerusalem and served in the IDF’s Intelligence Corps. Hanan and his wife live near Jerusalem, and he joined ALL ISRAEL NEWS in August 2023.
