The Druze blow with
the wind
Solving the puzzle of the Israeli Druze
Yasmin Bou Hamze
Outline
 Who are the Druze?
 Identity - Definitions
 Research question
 Why is it important?
 Theory
 Rejected theories
 Ethnic Affirmation
 Ethnic Manipulation
 The Druze today
 Key Historical Events – pre Arab-Israeli war
Who are the Druze?
 Offshoot of the Ismailiyya branch of Islam
 Esoteric minority sect
 Muwahhiumis “based on the idea of God’s unity
 No conversion, no intermarriage
 Reincarnation
 Central symbol  Druze star
 Taqiyya
 Importance of land
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGcdIq3vW4
What is identity?
 Individual identity
 “transitory and adaptable self as individual’s transit from
one social milieu to another, providing potentially a
somewhat different identity as it were in each
occasion” Oppong
 Social identity
 “provides a link between the psychology of the
individual – the representation of self – and the
structure and process of the social group within which
the self is embedded ” Brewer and Yuki
 Ethnic identity
 “defined as resulting from a common language,
ancestry, and shared history, traditions, culture, religion,
and/or kinship” Nagel
Puzzle
 Counterintuitive alliance
 Druze  ethnically Arab
 However  strong alliance with Israel, rejection
of Palestinian designation
 Israel citizenship
 Military service
 Political representation
 Initial alliance during the 1948 Arab Israeli War
 Druze versus Druze clashes
Research question
 Why did the Druze fight for the Israeli side in the 1948
Arab-Israeli war and how has this impacted Israeli
Druze identity formation in the long term?
 Micro level  multiple identity layers
 Macro level  citizenship, military, ethnitization
 Meso level combination of macro and micro level
 The Israeli State or the Druze – which party was more
significant for forging the 1948 alliance
Why is this question
important – Theory
 Identity politics – complicating the existing understanding
 Why have Israeli Druze abandoned their ethnic “Arab” identity in
favour of aligning with the country interpreted as ‘the enemy’ by
the vast majority of Arab countries surrounding it?
 What precisely is the nature of the Israeli-Druze relationship and
how strong is the national identification with Israel?
 Is it Israel imposition or is it the Druze voluntary commitment that
constitutes the driving force behind the existing dynamic?
 Religion and Ethnicity
 Does an ‘ethnic label’ translate into ‘ethnic identity’?
Why are the Druze important?
(This is not why)
Political Influence
Survival Skills
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=YFK4TAWbXN4
Hope for Israeli-Arab
reconciliation?
 Case study for resolution and reconciliation
Conceptual Approach –
Rejected theories
 Rational Choice theory
 micro level approach
 all human beings are rational and self interested
 Druze rationally assessed that Israel is more likely to
win
 Social contract theory
 Critique
 Druze = in essence irrational
 Druze continues to be dominant identity for Israeli
Druze  not explicable
 Halabi – case study
 Primordialism
 Jerry Muller, Ralph Peters and Samuel Huntington
 quasi-familiar ties
 Critique  Predicts Arab alliance
 Social-psychological theory
 Ethnic group formation to meet need for familiarity,
community, reciprocal help and emotional support
 Anderson  imagined communities
 Druckman  affiliation, achievement,power
 Sociocentric group formation
 Limit  Focus on nationalism
 Religious Conflict literature
 Fox  “non bargainable nature of religious motivations”
 Brubaker  “normative ordering power of religion”
 Is religion the central issue?
Conceptual Framework –
Social Constructivism
Anthropological Model Of
Ethnic Affirmation - Jenkins
Ethnic ManipulationKaufmann
 ethnicity is based on shared meaning
and culture, which is variable and
manipulated given different situational
contexts and as a result of interactions.
 appeal and use of ethnic symbols by
political agents—elites—for their benefit,
which is not necessarily to the benefit of
the rest of those affiliated with this identity
 Socially constructed discourses
 How do they succeed?
 Hierarchy of nominal identifications
(name and classification)
 elites manipulate ethnic discourse in order
to gain economic and political advantage
 Virtual identification  consequences
in terms of real experiences
 Fearon  discursive formation
 primary agency on the Druze
themselves, who shift their social
identification depending on the
political context
 Taqiya
 Competition between discourses, not elites
 Primary agency  Israeli State and political
entrepreneurs
Discourse of citizenship
 Collectivist Republic Discourse
 Collectivist Ethno Nationalist Discourse
 Liberal Discourse
 Military
 notion of republicanism and serving one’s country as
a “good citizen”
Druze – Israeli tension today
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANdbOTTG
NlY
 https://youtu.be/e5TIXuUxiUk?t=47
How did we get here?
History
 1517 – 1917 – Ottoman Rule
 1917 – British Mandate
 1928 – Death of Sheich Tarif Muhammad Tarif
 1929 – Violent Palestinian –Jewish clashes
Neutrality ?
 Druze saw the conflict as a religious one, not
pertaining to their interests
 highlighted the separation of the Druze from the
Palestinian Arabs
 Druze as potential future allies, particularly given
their connection with Druze communities in the
surrounding Arab regions
 Population did not always comply with the elites
 lack of social control
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
 “It is important to acquire the friendship of this
community…It is necessary to pay visits to the
Druze leaders of Eretz Israel and to express our
readiness to offer them legal help in matters
concerning pressure that may be exerted on
them by the government or the Muslims and
Christians…After these preparatory moves we
should establish relations with their leaders in
Hawran, Syria and the Republic of Lebanon”
History
 1517 – 1917 – Ottoman Rule
 1917 – British Mandate
 1928 – Death of Sheich Tarif Muhammad Tarif
 1929 – Violent Palestinian –Jewish clashes
 1936 – Arab Revolt against the British and the Jewish
 1938 – Murder of 5 Druze by Palestinians
From Neutrality towards
Alliance
 Palestinian aggression because of perceived
neutrality  security dilemma?
 Khayr family  rise to power?