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BELONGING AND CONTINUITY: ISRAELI DRUZE AND LEBANON, 1982–2000

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2016

Asher Kaufman
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Abstract

This article analyzes spatial perceptions and practices of Druze citizens of Israel before, during, and after the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon in 1982−2000. It argues that the opening of the Israel–Lebanon border in 1982 and its closing in 2000 had three effects: it generated internal social, political, and cultural changes within the community in Israel; it changed the relationship of the Druze with the State of Israel; and it reestablished strong ties with their coreligionists in Lebanon and Syria. Drawing insight from the field of border studies, the article shows how Druze citizens of Israel live concomitantly in state and suprastate spatial scales, forming a third, integrated or hybrid, spatial scale. The article proposes using the concept “hybrid spatial scale” as a tool for studying communities such as the Druze that operate on multiple territorial scales.

Keywords

Arab–Israeli conflictbordersDruzeidentityspace
Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , November 2016 , pp. 635 - 654
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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References

NOTES

Author's note: I am indebted to Efrat Ben Ze'ev, Cyrus Schayegh, Faten Ghosn, and William Miles for reading earlier drafts of this article and making valuable comments. I am also thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive critique. Yusri Khaizran deserves special gratitude for helping to set up some of the interviews and for deciphering for me complex Druze social and political practices. Finally, I am grateful to the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts at the University of Notre Dame for supporting my research trips to northern Israel.

1 Hasan Shaʿalan, “Alfei Druzim Hifginu: Anahnu Muhanim la-Mut le-maʿan Aheinu,” 15 June 2015, accessed 6 November 2015, http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4668864,00.html; ʿAdi Hashmonay, “ha-Druzim Mitgaysim le-maʿan Aheihem be-Suriyah,” 14 June 2015, accessed 6 November 2015, http://news.walla.co.il/item/2863276.

2 Hassan Shaʿalan and Roi Kais, “Thousands Call on Israel to Save Syrian Druze in Mass Protest,” 13 June 2015, accessed 6 November 2015, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4667999,00.html. See particularly the embedded video of this piece.

3 See, for example, Yahya Dabuq, “Hal Tatadakhal Yisraʾil ʿAskariyyan bi-Dhariʿat Himayat al-Duruz?,” al-Akhbar, 5 June 2015, accessed 6 November 2015, http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/234815; and Muʾassasat al-ʿIrfan li-Duruz Suriya: Siyasat Yisraʾil Marfuda wa-Lastum bi-Haja ila Tadakhuliha,” al-Manar, 22 June 2015, accessed 11 June 2015, http://www.almanar.com.lb/adetails.php?eid=1229039.

4 Noa Shpigel and Jackie Khury, Be-Mehaʾah ʿal ha-Tipul ha-Yisraʾeli be-Mordim Surim: Druzim Takfu Ambulans Tsvaʾi, Haaretz, 22 June 2015, accessed 6 November 2015, http://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/1.2665855.

5 ʿAdi Hashmonay, “Meʾot Druzim Hifginu: Aheinu be-Sakanat Haim, Yisrael Tsrikhah le-Hitʿarev,” 15 June 2015, accessed 6 November 2015, http://news.walla.co.il/item/2863597.

6 Agnew, John, “The Territorial Trap: The Geographical Assumptions of International Relations Theory,” Review of International Political Economy 1 (1994): 53–80 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 See two recent examples of studies whose analysis intentionally and conceptually goes beyond the nation-state: Tawil-Suri, Helga, “Cinema as the Space to Transgress Palestine's Territorial Trap,” Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 7 (2014): 169–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Schayegh, Cyrus, “The Many Worlds of ʿAbud Yasin; or, What Narcotics Trafficking in the Interwar Middle East Can Tell Us about Territorialization,” American Historical Review 116 (2011): 273–306 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

8 Howitt, Richard, “Scale,” in A Companion to Political Geography, ed. Agnew, John et al. (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing, 2003), 138 Google Scholar.

9 Taylor, Peter J. and Flint, Colin, Political Geography: World Economy, Nation-State and Locality, 6th ed. (New York: Routledge, 2011)Google Scholar; Delaney, David and Leitner, Helga, “Political Construction of Scale,” Political Geography 162 (1997): 93–97 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Jonas, Andrew E. G., “Scale,” in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Geography, ed. Agnew, John et al. (Chichester, UK, and Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2015), 26–27 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Howitt, Richard, “Scale as Relation: Musical Metaphors of Geographical Scale,” Area 30 (1998): 49–58 Google Scholar.

11 Anzaldúa, Gloria, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco, Calif.: Anunt Lute Books, 1987), 3 Google Scholar.

12 I borrow the term “alienated border” from the famous borderland typology of Oscar Martínez who defined it as one where “cross-boundary interchange is practically nonexistent owing to extremely unfavorable conditions.” Martínez, Oscar, Border People: Life and Society in the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands (Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press, 1994), 5–10 Google Scholar.

13 For a Lebanese perspective on the connection between northern Palestine and southern Lebanon, see Bazzi, Mustafa, Jabal ʿAmil wa-Tawabiʿihi fi Shimal Filastin (Beirut: Dar al-Mawasim, 2002)Google Scholar.

14 Dana, Nissim, The Druze in the Middle East: Their Faith, Leadership, Identity and Status (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2003), 18–19 Google Scholar; Firro, Kais M., The Druzes in the Jewish State: A Brief History (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 16 Google Scholar.

15 Harris, William, Lebanon: A History 600–2011 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 115–16Google Scholar.

16 Hazran, Yusri, The Druze Community and the Lebanese State between Confrontation and Reconciliation (Hoboken, N.J.: Taylor & Francis, 2014), 17 Google Scholar. See also how marriage patterns have largely reflected the separation between the two camps in Alamuddin, Nura S. and Starr, Paul D., Crucial Bonds: Marriage among the Lebanese Druze (Delmar, N.Y.: Caravan Books, 1980), 74–88 Google Scholar.

17 Firro, The Druzes in the Jewish State, 22–25, 71–127; Firro, , “Druze maqāmāt (Shrines) in Israel: From Ancient to Newly-Invented Tradition,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 32 (2005), 217–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 See, for example, Halabi, Rabbah, Ezrahim Shvey Hovot: Zehut Druzit ve-ha-Medina ha-Yehudit (Tel-Aviv: ha-Kibutz ha-Meyuhad, 2006)Google Scholar.

19 See the use of this phrase in the context of the solidarity of Israeli and Lebanese Druze with their Syrian coreligionists: “Hamlat Tabarruʿat li-Duruz Suriya Taht Shiʿar Tabaq al-Nahhas,” 5 June 2015, accessed 18 November 2015, http://www.hona.co.il/news-16,N-11700.html; and “Tahlilat Ikhbariyya,” al-Diyar, 1 March 2014, accessed 19 November 2015, http://www.addiyar.com/article/581797.

20 Interviews with the author, Hurfish, 21 January 2016. See also Abou-Hodeib, Toufoul, “Sanctity across the Border: Pilgrimage Routes and State Control in Mandate Lebanon and Palestine,” in The Routledge Handbook of the History of the Middle East Mandates, ed. Schayegh, Cyrus and Arsan, Andrew (London: Routledge, 2015), 383–94Google Scholar.

21 Jewish Agency, Political Department, Arab Section, 1 November 1942, S25/10226, Central Zionist Archives (CZA), Jerusalem.

22 Firro, The Druzes in the Jewish State, 25.

23 Tarif, ʿAbd Allah Salim, Sirat Sayyidina Fadilat “al-Shaykh Amin Tarif” wa-Sirat Hayat Sayyidina al-Marhum “al-Shaykh ʿAli Faris” (Julis: n.p., 1987), 82 Google Scholar.

24 Ibid., 84.

25 Ibid., 64–66; Fallah, ʿAli Nasib, Maqam al-Nabi Shuʿayb wa-Ghurfat al-Shaykh Nasib (Kafar Samiʿ, Israel: ʿAli Nasib Fallah, 2003), 57–70 Google Scholar. See also Junblatt, Kamal’s account of frequent visits of Palestinian Druze to Mukhtara, his hometown, in Kamal Joumblatt, Pour le Liban (Paris: Stock, 1978), 90−91 Google Scholar.

26 Firro, The Druzes in the Jewish State, 21−22.

27 A report on the celebrations of Nabi Shuʿayb, 24 April 1944, S25/21107-8, CZA; Abou-Hodeib, “Sanctity across the Border,” 390–91.

28 See also Muʿadi, Mansur, Rajul al-Karamat, al-Shaykh Jabar Dahish Muʿaddi (Yarka: printed by author, 2014)Google Scholar. The book contains documentations and accounts of diverse relationships between Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese Druze before 1948.

29 Scholarship on Israeli Druze tends to be broadly divided into two approaches. The first argues that Israel (even during the Yishuv years in Mandatory Palestine) has shrewdly used divide-and-rule policies to artificially separate Arab Druze from other Arab-Palestinian communities. Kais Firro's previously referenced book can be squarely placed within this group. See also Halabi, Ezrahim Shvey Hovot. The second approach points to a disconnection between Palestinian Druze and other Arabs in Palestine during the Mandate years. In 1948, it is argued, Druze strategically decided to align themselves with Israel and consequently a “blood oath” was established between them and the Jewish state. Nissim Dana's The Druze in the Middle East is a clear illustration of this line of argument. See also Nisan, Mordechai, “The Druze in Israel: Questions of Identity, Citizenship, and Patriotism,” Middle East Journal 64 (2010): 575−96CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Both approaches, however, acknowledge that since 1948, Druze have been discriminated against by the state. But while the former sees this discrimination as a structural condition inherent in the definition and practices of Israel as a Jewish state, the latter sees it as an unfortunate reality that should and could be amended.

30 Tarif, ʿAbd Allah Salim, Rahil al-ʿAlam al-Mufrad: Fadilat al-Shaykh Amin Tarif (Julis: n.p., 1996), 41–43 Google Scholar.

31 Dana, The Druze in the Middle East, 60−62; Bennett, Anne, “Reincarnation, Sect Unity, and Identity among the Druze,” Ethnology 45 (2006): 87–104 Google Scholar; Dwairy, Marwan, “The Psychosocial Function of Reincarnation among Druze in Israel,” Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 30 (2006): 29–53 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

32 Khury, Fuad I., Being a Druze (London: The Druze Heritage Foundation, 2004), 101−16Google Scholar. See also Oppenheimer, Jonathan W. S., “‘We Are Born in Each Others’ Houses’: Communal and Patrilineal Ideologies in Druze Village Religion and Social Structure,” American Ethnologist 7 (1980): 621−36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

33 Halabi, Rabah, “Invention of a Nation: The Druze in Israel,” Journal of Asian and African Studies 49 (2014): 271 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 See “Reincarnation among the Druze,” Margot Klauzner Archives, file A498/58, CZA; and Hasson, Akram, Gilgul Neshamot be-Reʾiya Druzit (Daliat al-Karmel: Asia, 2003)Google Scholar.

35 On Israeli policies towards the Druze, see Kaufman, Ilana, “Ethnic Affirmation or Ethnic Manipulation: The Case of the Druze in Israel,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 9 (2004): 53–82 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 Dana, The Druze in the Middle East, 89−92; Firro, Kais, “The Druze in and between Syria, Lebanon and Israel,” in Ethnicity, Pluralism, and the State in the Middle East, ed. Esman, Milton J. and Rabinovich, Itamar (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1988), 185−97Google Scholar.

37 Interview with the author, Haifa/ʿIsfiya, 8 July 2014.

38 “Nikhbadey ha-ʿEdah ha-Druzit Bikru ba-Kfar ha-Suri Hader,” Davar, 26 November 1973; “Druzim me-Yisraʾel Nifredu le-Shalom mi-Bnei ʿAdatam ba-Muvlaʿat,” Davar, 12 June 1974. Nissim Dana, phone interview with the author, 30 October 2014.

39 “Druzim me-Yisrael.”

40 “Toshavey ha-Muvlaʿat Bikshu le-Hishaʾer be-Yisraʾel,” Davar, 21 June 1974; “30 Druzim me-ha-Muvlaʿat Nishʾaru be-Shetah Yisraʾel,” Maariv, 20 June 1974; “Druzim me-ha-Muvlaʿat be-Yisraʾel,” Davar, 3 July 1974.

41 Schenk, Bernadette, “Druze Identity in the Middle East: Tendencies and Developments in Modern Druze Communities since the 1960s,” in The Druze: Realities & Perceptions, ed. Salibi, Kamal (London: The Druze Heritage Foundation, 2005), 80 Google Scholar.

42 Falah, Salman, “Ikhwanuna fi Lubnan,” in Hadith al-Thulathaʾ (Haifa: al-Hoda, 1977), 98 Google Scholar.

43 “Al-Shaykh Amin Tarif fi Lubnan, 1982,” YouTube video, posted 10 May 2012, accessed 28 June 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzzU7CqXOgg. The report is by Rafik Halabi, a prominent Israeli Druze journalist who escorted Amin Tarif and recorded this visit. Halabi's own enthusiasm reflects the level of excitement sparked by this crossborder encounter. See also, “Ziyarat al-Marhum al-Shaykh Amin Tarif li-Khalawat al-Bayada, 7 July, 1990,” YouTube video, posted 9 July 2003, accessed 12 October 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08Vi7nSgO4M. See also ʿAbd Allah Salim Tarif, Rahil al-ʿAlam al-Mufrad, 50.

44 Nissim Dana, interview with the author, Ariel, 14 July 2014.

45 Interview with the author, Yarka, 2 January 2014.

46 Interview with the author, Yarka, 2 January 2014, Hurfish, 21 January 2016.

47 Darbiyya died in November 2005. Thousands of Israeli Druze attended a memorial ceremony to celebrate his spiritual leadership. Some recollected the years during which they were able to cross the border to Khalwat al-Bayada to receive his blessing and religious counseling. See, for example, “Halvayat ha-Manoah Sheikh Abu Salmʾan Husein Darbiyyah,” accessed 19 May 2014, http://www.karmel.co.il/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20507.

48 “I am a Druze,” a documentary by Rafiq Halabi, 1991, YouTube video, posted 1 January 2013, accessed 16 May 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32gaIH8uo6Y.

49 Interviews with the author, Yarka, Haifa/ʿIsfia, 2 January 2014. In my interview with Nissim Dana, he recounted cases in which he issued permits for Druze who asked to go to Lebanon to reconnect with their family from a previous incarnation. He explained that out of curiosity he had asked them for details, and they were able to give him information about the family and even their house, which they were going to seek out once in Lebanon. Another interviewee (8 July 2014) told me about a Druze senior military officer, a famous political figure today (whose name he refused to disclose because of concerns about public embarrassment), who in the late 1990s crossed the border, took a taxi to Hasbaya, and found the house where he had supposedly lived in a previous incarnation.

50 Interview with the author, Yarka, 2 January 2014.

51 See a series of clips on YouTube that document a visit by a delegation of ʿuqqāl from Lebanon to the maqām of Nabi Shuʿayb, where they were greeted by Amin Tarif and thousands of Israeli Druze: “Awwal Ziyara li-Mashaykh Lubnan ila Filastin, 1982,” YouTube video, posted 25 September 2010, accessed 24 October 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af_ssQuHnmE, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQTBS_8STjY, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43ZctpspGD0, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlYBxdMMPlQ.

52 Interviews with the author, Yarka, 2 January 2014, 8 July 2014; Hurfish, 21 January 2016.

53 Interviews with the author, Yarka, 2 January, 2014.

54 Yaʾir Ravitz, interview with the author, Zikhron Yaakov, 3 January 2014; Yaakov Zohar, interview with the author, ʿAdi, 8 January 2014. Ravitz and Zohar held prominent positions in the IDF and the Mossad and were part of the security system that controlled South Lebanon.

55 “Hayalim Druzim Nishpetu ʿal Lehima le-tsad Aheyhem ba-Shuf, Davar, 17 January 1983; Muhammad Rammal, interview with the author, Yarka, 8 July 2014; interviews with the author, Hurfish, 21 January 2016. In a conversation I had with Hillel Cohen, today a Hebrew University professor, he noted that while he was imprisoned in a military jail in early 1983 (for a different felony), he met dozens of Druze, many of whom were convicted for defection and for providing military assistance to their Lebanese coreligionists.

56 Muhammad Rammal, interview with the author, Yarka, 8 July 2014; Kais Firro, interview with the author, Haifa, 8 July 2014. See also Norman Kempster, “Israel Warns Druze to Shun PLO Alliance,” Los Angeles Times, 12 September 1983; Edward Walsh, “Israel Warns Druze Forces in Lebanon,” The Washington Post, 5 September 1983; and “Israel's Druze Call for Army Crackdown against Phalangists in Lebanon,” The Washington Post, 20 July 1983.

57 Trudy Rubin, “Druze Question Israel's Aid to Phalange: Loyal Druze of Israel Oppose Helping the Enemy of Lebanese Druze,” The Christian Science Monitor, 1 September 1982.

58 Nissim Dana, interview with the author, Ariel, 14 July 2014.

59 Interviews with the author, Yarka, 2 January 2014; Haifa/ʿIsfiya, 8 July 2014; Hurfish, 21 January 2016.

60 “Ha-Druzim: ha-Medina Monaʿat Mishlahat Tanhumim li-Levanon,” Haaretz, 11 November 2003.

61 “Ha-Druzim Nifredu le-Shalom mi-Manihigam she-Met bi-Levanon,” Haaretz, 27 November 2003.

62 “La-Rishona ha-Medina Hirsheta le-Druzim Linsoʿa le-Suriyah,” Haaretz, 31 August 2004.

63 “Anshei Dat Druzim Nasʿu le-Suriyah be-loʾ Heyiter,” Haaertz, 1 September 2005.

64 Shaykh Mahmud Jabir Sayf and 4010 Others against the Prime Minister of Israel and the Minister of Interior, High Court of Justice (Baga”tz) 06/2691 (18 July 2006).

65 See video clips from the 2010 visit, accessed 29 May 2014, http://www.karmel.co.il/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13647. Author's interview with one of the participants in the 2010 visit, Hurfish, 21 January 2016.

66 See Rafik Halabi's interviews with ʿAwni Khnayfes, one of organizers of the visits, and with ʿAyub Qara, one of their more vociferous opponents, “Rafiq ba-Shetah,” posted on Vimeo by Kamal Halabi, accessed 22 October 2014, http://vimeo.com/15870940.

67 Committee on Internal Affairs, minutes of meeting, 12 August 2010, accessed May 29 2014, http://oknesset.org/committee/meeting/2657/.

68 Ibid. The spectrum of Druze participants ranged from Naffaʿ, on the far left, an ardent critic of Druze collaboration with the Jewish state, to Hamed ʿAmar, Knesset member from Yisraʾel Beytenu, one of the most ultranationalist right-wing parties in Israel.

69 Ibid.

70 See “Druzim Yisraʾelim Yevakru be-Suriyah: Hahlata Historit,” Ynet, 6 October 2010, accessed 18 February 2015, http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3965462,00.html.

71 “17 Kohanei Dat Druzim Hursheʿu be-Vikur be-Medinot Oyev She-lo ka-Din,” Chanel 2 News, 18 December 2013, accessed 23 October 2014, http://www.mako.co.il/news-law/legal/Article-6a9457474570341004.htm.

72 Jacky Khouri, “Beit ha-Mishpat Bitel Harshaʿat 16 Sheykhim Druzim She-Bikru be-Atarim Kdoshim be-Suriyah u-bi-Levanon, Haaretz, 20 May 2014.

73 “Shnat Maʾasar le-Haver ha-Knesset le-Sheʿavar, Said Naffaʿ Beshel Bikuro le-Suriyah be-2007, Haaretz, 4 September 2014.

74 Interviews with the author, Hurfish, 21 January 2016; Yarka, 8 January 2014; Haifa/ʿIsfiya, 8 July 2014.

75 Interviews with the author, Hurfish, 21 January 2016.

76 See a study that employs the concept of hybridity and space through an exploration of different forms of sovereignty in Lebanon: Ferguson, Sara, “Beyond the ‘Weak State’: Hybrid Sovereignties in Beirut,” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 30 (2012): 655–74Google Scholar.