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Silent Minority

Israel's Druse population is beginning to
be recognized for its bloody contribution
to the Army.

LARRY DERFNER

Israel Correspondent

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T

he Arab Druse have
long been a silent
minority in the Jewish
state, a curiosity. They are
Arabs loyal to Israel who are
best known for their secret
traditions and colorful
villages in the Galilee.
But on May 6, Yom
Ha'Zikaron (Remembrance
Day for Fallen Soldiers), the
general attitude towards the
Druse seemed more atten-
tive, more respectful than
before. This new recognition
began building up about
three months ago, when Pa-
lestinian terrorists in Leb-
anon returned the body of
the Druse Israeli soldier
Samir Assad — the only one
of Israel's seven MIAs from
the Lebanon War who has
been found, dead or alive.
Then, exactly a month
before Yom Ha'Zikaron,
Salah Tafesh, a Druse Army
medic, was killed by the
Islamic Jihad in South Leb-
anon while attending to two
wounded Israeli officers.
Both officers credited him
with saving their lives. Mr.
Assad and Mr. Tafesh both
came from Beit Jann, a
Druse village for over 500
years, about 15 miles east of
Safed.
It came to light that two of
Mr. Tafesh's brothers also
had been killed in uniform,
and that his father had been
permanently disabled from a
battle wound. It also turned
out that Beit Jann, with a
population of about 7,500,
and with 43 dead Israeli
soldiers and nearly 300
disabled ones, had one of the
highest proportions of army
casualties of any place in the
country.
And Israelis learned that
soldiers from Beit Jann were
buried in their families'
yards or in a local schoolyard
because there was no
military cemetery in the
village. On the eve of Yom
Ha'Zikaron, an army repre-
sentative came to Beit Jann,
and, together with village
leaders and bereaved
families, laid the
cornerstone for a military
graveyard. On Remem-
brance Day itself, Druse
memorial ceremonies and
stories about their fallen
army heroes got con-
siderable coverage on the

ar4

I

. somber, day-long TV broad-
casts dedicated solely to the
holiday.
The Druse believe in an off-
shoot religion of Islam. ThR-
sect began in Egypt in the
11th century, then wars
scattered them throughout
the Middle East, and they
are now concentrated in
Israel, Syria and Lebanon.
The Druse hold to a sun...,
vivor's creed, pledging their
loyalty to whichever power •
rules in their land. Among
Israel's 85,000 Druse are 4
about 15,000 in the Golan_,
Heights, who are publicly
hostile to Israel, refuse its,..4
offer of citizenship, and say
they are waiting for the 4
Golan to be returned to
Syria.
Many Israelis take them at
their word, but many others'
think the Golan Druse are

The most sensitive
Israeli Army units
are still off-limits
to the Druse.

only saying this for fear
what Hafez Assad would do
to their relatives in Syria if 4
they said different.
Dr. Elie Rekhess of Tel
Aviv University, a leading .
authority on Israeli Arabs,
says "the truth is,
somewhere in the middle.
Some of the Druse in the
Golan are worried about
their relatives, but there are
also strong Syrian nation-
alist elements among them."
The Galilee Druse have
clan, or hamula,.ties to those
in the Golan, but they stand
totally apart from them in
their attitude towards
Israel. The Galilee Druse
have good relations with the
rest of Israel's Arabs, but
they stand apart from them
as well.
A small number of
Bedouin trackers and a
trickle of other Arabs vol-
unteer for the army, but the
Druse are the only Arabs
who are drafted, servin
mainly in the infantry. And
while other Israeli Arabs
tend to vote for extreme. left-
wing, Arab-dominated par-
ties, the Druse have given
most of their votes to Labor
and the Likud —each o
which has one Druse
Knesset member — with a
slight preference for Labor.