Syrian Druze plan first Israel pilgrimage: source close to delegation
BEIRUT, Lebanon - A delegation of Syrian Druze clerics is planning to visit a pilgrimage site in Israel on Friday for the first time since Israel's creation in 1948, a source close to the group said.
"A delegation of dozens of Druze clerics will visit Israel on Friday," the source said, adding that it follows an invitation from the Druze community in Israel.
"The delegation is waiting for the green light" from Israeli authorities, he told AFP, noting the clerics planned to cross the land border from Syria.
The pilgrimage would be to the Tomb of Nabi Shuaib in the Galilee, the source said, adding the delegation would meet the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif.
The source said however that the visit had been met with "strong opposition" from other members of Syria's Druze community.
The Druze are divided between Syria, Israel, Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
They account for about three percent of Syria's population and are heavily concentrated in the southern province of Sweida.
Following the ouster of longtime Syrian president Bashar Al Assad in December, Israel sent troops into the demilitarised buffer zone of the Golan in southwest Syria.
Israel's Druze community has also sent food aid to their Syria counterparts twice through the land border, the same source told AFP, adding the latest delivery arrived Wednesday.
In early March, following a deadly clash between government-linked forces and Druze fighters in the suburbs of Damascus, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz threatened military action in Syria.
A defence ministry statement quoted Katz as saying his country would not allow Syria's new rulers "to harm the Druze".
Druze leaders immediately rejected Katz's warning and declared their loyalty to a united Syria.
Having largely remained on the sidelines of Syria's 13-year civil war, Druze forces focused on defending their territory from attacks and largely avoided conscription into the Syrian armed forces.
Druze representatives are currently in negotiations with Syria's new leaders for a deal that would see the integration of their armed groups in the country's security forces.