Worried about the Syria war, Golan Heights residents seek Israeli citizenship

By Ruth Eglash, Special for USA TODAY | USATODAY

MAJDAL SHAMS, Golan Heights – It's lunchtime and Shufi Salah's restaurant on the outskirts of this tiny town on the Golan Heights is packed with customers.

Although the Golan has been occupied and annexed by Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967, most people here consider themselves Syrians – but that may be changing.

Taking a break from dishing up the local favorite of warm pita bread filled with freshly chopped salad, hummus and falafel, Salah says many people here have become Israeli citizens and more are hiring lawyers to do the same.

"People are unsure of what is going to happen in Syria, and they also want democracy for themselves," he says.

Israel has controlled the Golan since its army invaded to stop Syria's military from raining down tank fire on Israel during the Six-Day War. The people here have rejected Israeli rule for decades, but many are rethinking that as they watch the regime of Bashar Assad slaughter 30,000 people to maintain power.

Israel's Interior Ministry says it is seeing a rise in the number of people in the Golan Heights requesting Israeli citizenship. Given that Israel and Syria are still technically at war, some worry that taking Israeli citizenship could be considered treason.

"People either have relatives still living in Syria, or they are worried that if the Golan Heights eventually is returned to Syria, they will be persecuted for agreeing to take Israeli citizenship," explains Salah, who is wary to talk too much about it.

This sleepy, slow-moving farming village is a stark contrast to the violent, bloody images coming out from north of here.

Majdal Shams and the entire Golan is sheltered from the violence to the north because of the Israeli presence. There are a great number of Israeli military bases and lookout posts in the Golan that have prevented Syrian forces from returning to the region for 35 years.

The United Nations considers the Israeli presence to be an unsanctioned occupation, but Israel maintains that it has the right to retain the territory for security. It has also at times offered to return it to Syria in exchange for peace.



In 1981, Israel placed the Golan under its national civil administration. The school system and infrastructure are all under Israeli governance.

Many residents here once served in the Syrian army, and most remain loyal to Damascus, but the 20,000 people living in Majdal Shams, Masada, Bukata, and Ein Kenya are becoming increasingly divided over whether to continue supporting Syria and Assad or to root for those fighting against him.

"When the revolution started in Syria and we saw how the regime was treating its own people, we were shocked," says Bassel Rada, 19.



Rada does not believe that Assad's atrocities are turning people toward Israel.

"It has not changed how we feel about Israel," he says, adding that though Assad has killed tens of thousands of Syrians since March 2011, Israel has killed 500 over the past 40 years.

The people of the Golan are not Sunni Muslims, nor members of the Alawite Islamic sect of Assad's regime.They are Druze, an offshoot of Islam that combines with it practices from Judaism and Christianity.

There are other Druze communities in Israel whose residents are full Israeli citizens who even serve in the Israeli Defense Forces. Druze in the Golan, however, are under permanent resident status in Israel and must use temporary documents for travel.

Sabene Hadad, spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry's Population and Immigration Authority, says that Israel is in the process of trying to determine how to deal with the new requests for citizenship. She declined to give exact figures on the number or Golan Druze looking to make the change.

Mada'a Mugrabi, a local dentist and musician and vocal critic of the Assad regime, does not believe it.

"I've heard talk that people are applying for Israeli citizenship here but have not seen any proof that this is true," he says. Even though people are speaking out against Assad's campaign, "it does not mean we will suddenly accept Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights."

Standing not far from a mishmash of graffiti displaying both pro- and anti-Assad slogans, construction worker Mohammad Romia says he has heard about numerous people applying for Israel citizenship. He says the requests are more about need than want.

"We only have permanent residency and can't get passports," Romia says.

He says he will always be loyal to Assad and is proud of his Syrian heritage. "People want to travel and being (an Israeli citizen) just makes life easier for them."



Suke Soliman Almaket, a supporter of Assad, says he spent more than two decades in an Israeli jail for refusing to break ties with Syria. He says talk of Israeli citizenship requests is "propaganda."

"The people here do not want to be part of Israel, and in the end, we will all go back to Syria," he says.