Who Are the Druse: The Religious Minority at the Center of Israel and Syria’s Tensions

Recent violence in Syria’s southern province of Sweida has killed hundreds of people, shaken the country’s fragile new leadership and drawn in neighboring Israel.

At the center of the crisis are the Druse — a secretive religious minority that has long carved out a precarious identity across Syria, Lebanon and Israel, preserving strict traditions while adapting to regional powers.

That balancing act, once key to their survival, is now under strain as upheaval in Syria and Israel’s increasingly assertive regional posture leave the community newly exposed.

Closed to outsiders and often misunderstood, the Druse faith emerged in the 11th century as an offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. Though Druse share historical roots with Islam, they do not identify as Muslim. Their monotheistic religion blends elements of Greek philosophy, Hinduism and Neoplatonism, with sacred texts accessible only to a select few. That mysticism has long drawn both fascination and suspicion, and led some Muslim scholars over the centuries to brand them as heretics.

More than half of the roughly one million Druse worldwide live in Syria, making up about 3 percent of the country’s population. Most of the rest are spread across Lebanon and Israel, as well as the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1960s.

The Druse traditionally pledge loyalty to the state they reside in — a principle rooted in their religious doctrine, which prioritizes pragmatism and self-preservation over political confrontation. Although that stance has led Druse in Syria, Lebanon and Israel onto divergent political paths, a strong transnational bond endures: one of kinship, shared memory and mutual protection.