Palestinians Call For Protecting Al-Aqsa on Purim Holiday

Palestinians perform Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. (WAFA)
Palestinians perform Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. (WAFA)
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Palestinians Call For Protecting Al-Aqsa on Purim Holiday

Palestinians perform Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. (WAFA)
Palestinians perform Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. (WAFA)

Palestinian officials called for a mobilization towards Al-Aqsa Mosque, on Wednesday and Thursday, to face calls by extremist Jewish groups to storm the mosque on the Jewish holiday of Purim.

Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Hussein called on the Palestinians to flock to Al-Aqsa in order to counter calls launched by extremist settler groups to break into the mosque on Purim, which falls on March 16-17.

He warned that Jewish settlers would try to bring whistles and costumes and they might dance and sing at the gates of the Al-Aqsa Mosque under the security of the Israel Police.

Hussein added that the violation of the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque was “a heinous crime committed as part of the efforts to establish a reality on the ground in violation of international law and in a manner that threatens the Arab and Islamic presence.”

Palestinian Minister of Endowments and Religious Affairs, Hatem al-Bakri said calls launched by the “temple” groups, calling on settlers to storm into the Al-Aqsa Mosque, under the pretext of reviving the first Jewish holiday of 2022, were part of an “escalating and dangerous plot.”

“The world must assume its responsibilities and seriously intervene to put an end to these violations,” he urged.

Following a meeting over the weekend, senior security officials decided to strengthen the deployment of police and security forces in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet security service, returned on Sunday morning from an unannounced visit to Washington, Ynet news site reported.

According to the website, Bar met with his US counterpart, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Christopher Wray, and senior officials in the Department of Defense, to discuss the Russian war on Ukraine and the Palestinian issue.

The trip was Bar’s first known visit to the US since coming to office five months ago. Bar warned of the possibility of a flare-up with the Palestinians during Ramadan in April, Ynet added.



Behind Israel's Support for the Druze Lies Goal to Weaken Syria

Israeli Druze look over the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, from its Israeli side at Majdal Shams, May 3, 2025. REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
Israeli Druze look over the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, from its Israeli side at Majdal Shams, May 3, 2025. REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
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Behind Israel's Support for the Druze Lies Goal to Weaken Syria

Israeli Druze look over the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, from its Israeli side at Majdal Shams, May 3, 2025. REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
Israeli Druze look over the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, from its Israeli side at Majdal Shams, May 3, 2025. REUTERS/Avi Ohayon

Israel's stated commitment to defending the Syrian Druze is, by the admission of some of its leaders, consistent with a long-term strategic goal -- the weakening of Syria.
Israel, which has occupied part of Syrian territory since 1967, claimed to be protecting the Druze minority to justify several strikes following recent, bloody inter-communal clashes in Syria.

In the aftermath of one strike near the Presidential Palace in Damascus on May 3, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the bombardment should serve as a "clear message".

"We will not allow forces to be sent south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community," he said.

In March, Israel had threatened to intervene if the new government that toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad "touched the Druze".

However, according to Andreas Krieg, senior lecturer at King's College London, Israel is not motivated by "altruistic concerns" and is "obviously now using (the minority group) as some sort of pretext to justify their military occupation of parts of Syria".

In a speech last month, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich hinted at the government's intentions, saying the war in Gaza against Hamas would end when "Syria is dismantled", among other goals.

The country's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has confirmed that indirect talks with Israel have taken place "to contain the situation". When questioned by AFP, Israeli diplomats declined to comment.

-'Druze autonomy'-

Entangled in a war with Hamas that has spilled over Israel's borders, Netanyahu has insisted the country is in a fight for its survival and that he is determined to "change the Middle East".

In 2015, while a member of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Saar, advocated the division of Syria into various ethno-religious entities, envisaging "Druze autonomy in southern Syria".

The plan was reminiscent of the division of Syria imposed between the two world wars by France, then the mandatory power. Paris ultimately had to abandon the scheme under pressure from Syrian nationalists, including among the Druze.

Israel's largest neighbor, Damascus fought in three Arab-Israeli wars -- in 1948-1949, June 1967, and October 1973.

The last war cemented Israel's control over most of the Golan Heights, territory which it conquered from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981.

Following Assad's overthrow, Israel moved its forces into the UN-patrolled demilitarized zone on the Golan and carried out hundreds of strikes against military targets in Syria.

It said its aim was to prevent the transfer of weapons to the new government in Damascus towards which it is openly hostile.

The Druze, followers of a religion that split from Shiite Islam, are mainly found in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

In its official figures, Israel counts around 152,000 Druze, though that includes 24,000 who live in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, of whom fewer than five percent have Israeli citizenship.

Countering Türkiye
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), 126 people were killed during clashes with government security forces last week in predominantly Druze and Christian areas near Damascus and in the Druze stronghold of Suweida in the far south.

After these clashes, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri, a Syrian Druze religious leader, called for the deployment of an international protection force and endorsed a community statement asserting that the Druze were "an inalienable part" of Syria.

Within Israel, Druze took part in several demonstrations demanding that the government defend members of their religion in Syria.

While most Druze in the Golan continue to identify as Syrian, the Israeli Druze population has been loyal to the State of Israel since its creation in 1948 and the group is over-represented in the army and police.

"The State of Israel feels indebted to the Druze and their exceptional commitment to the Israeli army," said Efraim Inbar, a researcher at the INSS.

According to Inbar, defending the Druze is also part of the new post-Assad geopolitical landscape in which Israel "is trying to protect the Druze and Kurdish minorities from the Sunni majority and prevent Türkiye from extending its influence to Syria".

In contrast to Israel, Ankara, grappling with its own Kurdish problem, supports the new authorities in Damascus and is keen to prevent the Kurds from consolidating their positions in northeastern Syria, along its border.