The Syrian pilgrims make a rare visit to Israel

A delegation of the Syrian Druze made a rare trip to Israel this week and visited a mausoleum respected by faith, as Israel seeks to extend its influence inside Syria after the fall of the dictator Bashar al -Assad.

Both Israel and Syria have large societies of Arabic-speaking religious lessons spread in the Levant region. But with the two countries officially in the war for decades, Syrian Druze They were generally unable to enter Israel to visit the holy sites for their faith.

Sheikh Muqaq Tafif, the leader of lessons in Israel, who helped organize the two -day visit, said that nearly 100 people arrived on Friday in a convoy of Syrian territory. They visited the tomb of the Prophet Shweib in the northern Galilee area in Israel, a sacred position on the sect.

“After it has been cut for decades, to see our people reach our country – it is a moment of extreme happiness,” said Mr. Tafif, adding that he knows most of the visitors only from phone conversations due to the difficulty of traveling between the two countries.

Urin Marmmastein, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, books Social media must have the first of its kind in decades.

In Israel, it holds many Israeli passports lessons, and they work in the national army and are seen as “brothers in arms.” Others who live in the Golan Heights, the lands that Israel seized from Syria in the Middle East war in 1967 and are still later, still considers itself Syria and tend to obtain Israeli residence cards, but not citizenship.

Since the collapse of the dictatorship of Mr. Alsad in early December, Israel has launched a group of air strikes on Syria, which it says aims to prevent hostile forces from the crowd near its borders. However, the moves prompted fears between the Syrians from the prolonged Israeli occupation of the Syrian territories.

At the same time, Israel contacted the Syrian Druze, and many of them live in it Villages and cities in southern SyriaAs potential partners.

Druze militias in Syria are under pressure into the unified national army, which the new president is trying to establish. Israeli officials have suggested that Israel could intervene on behalf of the Druze, including militarily, if they are threatened by government forces.

David Menker, a spokesman for the Israeli government, He said This week, Israel was “ready to defend, if necessary, the academic population of Syria from the forces of the new regime.” The broad Syrian militias categorically rejected the show.

Israel, Israeli Minister of Defense, said this week that Israel was preparing to allow some Syrian Druze in Israeli lands to work in the Golan Heights.

The Druze belongs to a sect that separated from Islam about 1000 years ago, and eventually became a separate religion. Its members, now spread between Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and northern Israel, often find themselves on the aspects of conflicting conflicts in the region.

Since the fall of Mr. Assad, the Israeli forces have gone into the Syrian territories, and seized a 155 square miles insulating area and bombed targets throughout the country. Israeli officials condemned the new government in Damascus because of its Islamic leadership and said that their forces will remain in the Syrian territories in the foreseeable future.

The new Syrian president, Ahmed Al -SharraThe international community called for pressure on Israel to withdraw. He also emphasized that his government does not pose any threat to its neighbors or religious minorities such as the Druze, because the Syrians are tired of war.