After Attack, Druze Israeli Soldiers, Residents Refute Global Myth of Israel as 'Apartheid State'

MAJDAL SHAMS, Golan Heights – Israel is often accused in international arenas of racism and even of operating as an Apartheid state, yet the recent attack on a Druze minority community in the Golan Heights tells a different story.

Company Sgt.-Major Eyal Ghanam, a Druze Israeli, is an Israel Defense Forces commander in the Givati Brigade. He fought in the 2014 Gaza-Israel war and now serves as a reservist in the ongoing war after October 7th.

Ghanam spoke to journalists in the Druze town of Majdal Shams after a Hezbollah rocket killed 12 children as they played on a soccer field last month. Dozens were wounded.

"It's important to us in every event/incident that we do, this is my message to the whole world because the world needs to understand this," Ghanam explained. "Every time we need to do an operation or (have) certain operations to do, we always endanger ourselves, we put the highest risk on ourselves so we won't injure any innocent person."

Ghanam noted that for a military operation that should take just six hours, the IDF will often spend 12 to 24 hours to avoid civilian casualties.

"This is exactly the reason I personally believe that this war is taking so long," he stated. "The reason is that we are taking the time to think, to attack the ones who attacked us."

About 150,000 Druze live in Israel, mainly in tight-knit communities. While Arabic-speaking, they are not Muslim, and they practice a unique religion. 

Ghanam believes the Druze know the difference between good and evil.

"That is the way we are – as a population and congregation – always educated," he said. "Also in the IDF family, we are educated to do good things, not only in war, and not only during my service, I saw and I still require this for a long time that at the end of all things, we do everything in our ability, really to prevent war and to reach peace."

Ghanam also perceives his people do not want war.

"We really try not to hurt the innocent and to bring down all this terror that really is taking place in the Middle East, with the one goal, to reach peace," he asserted.

Many Druze here are Israeli citizens, serving in the military. Others, like most in Majdal Shams, choose residency over citizenship so they can travel more freely to visit relatives who live in Syria and Lebanon.

Eyal's father, Ret. IDF Col. Hamada Ghanam, says he believes the trouble in the north is caused solely by Hezbollah and not the Lebanese people.

"Hezbollah (moved) their country to war," declared the elder Ghanam. "And most of the communities in Lebanon – I am speaking about the Druze, the Christian, and the Sunni Muslims – they don't want war. What is the result of the war? And they don't want to suffer, because we know very well that Hezbollah (is) working according to the policy of Iran."

In the meantime, Israel waits for Iran and its proxies to retaliate for the killing of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, targeted after the Majdal Shams massacre.

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