Jumblat warns Druze against being used to 'partition Syria and region'

Lebanon's Druze leader Walid Jumblat on Sunday called on the Druze of Syria to preserve their "Arab identity."

"Preserve your stance in the face of the occupation of Arab territory in the Syrian Golan," Jumblat said in a speech marking the 48th anniversary of the assassination of his father Kamal Jumblat at the hands of Assad regime agents.

"Preserve your Islamic heritage and beware of the Zionist intellectual infiltration that wants to turn you into an ethnicity," Jumblat added.

"Beware of being used by some as a wedge to partition Syria and the rest of the region under the slogan of the alliance of minorities that was opposed by Kamal Jumblat, who was martyred due to his opposition to it," Jumblat went on to say.

He added: "The visits that are religious by nature do not negate that the lands of Palestine and the Golan are occupied."

Dozens of clerics and others from Syria’s minority Druze community crossed into the Israeli-controlled side of the Golan Heights Friday for the first time in decades.

The nearly 100 Syrian Druze crossed the heavily-fortified border area in three buses, escorted by members of the Israeli military. They visited a religious shrine on the Israeli side of the border.

The rare visit came three months after the end of a five-decade grip on power by the Assad family in Syria. Israel has said it is ready to protect the Druze of Syria if they come under attack by the country’s new rulers.

Many Druze have rejected Israel’s overtures, and critics accuse Israel of trying to weaken and divide Syria following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad.

Nevertheless, a group of Druze from the Israeli-controlled Golan heights welcomed the Syrian Druze at the crossing point who waved the multi-colored flag of the religious minority, chanting in Arabic “It is written on our doors, welcome to our beloved ones.”