By Eitan Elhadez-Barak
A four-kilometer walk through the rolling hills above the Sea of Galilee leads to the tomb of Nabi Shuaib, the holiest site in the Druze faith and a major annual pilgrimage destination for Druze communities in Israel and across the region.
The path passes fields already turning golden at the height of spring. The occasion is Nabi Shuaib, an important Druze religious holiday. But for many of the pilgrims, the spiritual significance of the five-day holiday is inseparable from growing concern over developments just across the border in southern Syria.
“There is not a single person in the community who is not following what is happening. What happens there affects every home here,” Sadeq Azzam told TPS at the entrance to the tomb. Azzam is from the Galilee village of Abu Sanan.
Azzam described a grim situation in Syria since the rise of the Turkish-backed government of Ahmed al-Sharaa.
In July, 2025, government forces attacked Druze in southern Syria, massacring an estimated 5,000 people and wiped out 36 villages.
Around 187,000 Syrians, mostly Druze, remain displaced. There have also been steady reports of kidnappings and sexual violence against the Druze.
“It was October 7 on steroids,” Azzam said bitterly, referring to Hamas’ 2023 attack on southern Israel. “Just replace the Assad regime with the Julani [al-Sharaa] regime.”
Another Druze visitor, Safadi, also from Abu Sanan, said that his extended family remains in the predominantly Druze city of Suweida in southern Syria.
“The Druze are like a silver platter,” he said. “If you strike one point on the platter, the whole platter will tremble and make a sound. That’s how we are. A strike on a Druze in Syria shakes the heart of a Druze in Israel.”
Israel’s Druze community of 152,000 has been calling on the Israeli government to take stronger measures to protect their co-religionists in southern Syria.
Around 40,000 Druze live in the southern Syrian provinces of Quneitra, Da’ara and Suweida under Israeli protection.
Netanyahu has called for the demilitarization of southern Syria.
While saying that Israel should avoid ground involvement, Azzam said there is an expectation among some Druze leaders for expanded humanitarian assistance and air and artillery support.
“We don’t want Israeli soldiers to die there,” Azzam said.
The close ties felt across borders by Druze communities stem from a unique religious and historical tradition that dates back centuries.
The Druze trace their ancestry back to the Biblical figure Jethro, whom they call Shuaib. According to Druze tradition, his burial site was identified following a dream attributed to Saladin, the Muslim leader who fought the Crusaders.
Inside the complex is the cenotaph associated with Nabi Shuaib, covered in green cloth. Pilgrims move through designated prayer areas, including a niche believed to mark a footprint associated with Shuaib.
The Druze living in the Galilee and Mount Carmel areas sided with the Jews in 1948 during Israel’s War of Independence, opting to be part of Israel and establishing themselves in all areas of public life.
When Israel captured the Golan Heights in the Six Day War of 1967, the Golan Druze refused Israeli offers of citizenship, believing Syria would recapture the plateau. But attitudes changed since the Syrian Civil War broke out in 2011.
In Israel, the Druze serve in senior positions in public and military life, and the bond between Jewish and Druze soldiers is referred to as the “covenant of blood.”