Ma’an Editorial Board – The Levant has always been the most suitable place for the coexistence of religions and sects for a thousand years. Everyone lives there on the basis of mutual respect, solidarity, mutual support and brotherhood.

The struggle of the Palestinian people against the ideas of Zionism has no sectarian or religious origin, but is rather a self-defense against the ideas of ethnic cleansing, genocide, forced Judaization, and excessive violence against civilians.

Throughout my life I have never found any reason to mention any disagreement, however simple, between the Palestinian people and the Bani Ma’ruf. The Druze community in Palestine were and still are an integral part of the components of Arab Palestinian society, and this is a fact that does not need discussion. However, the complexities of the conflict and its continuation for more than a hundred years have introduced exceptions that are difficult for the average person to understand.

It is strange and reprehensible what is said by t
he Palestinian prisoners of stories that are not befitting of human beings, nor befitting of the Palestinian people, nor befitting of the members of the sect, unfortunate events, torture and humiliation of the prisoners and detainees at the hands of jailers from the members of the sect.

The Palestinian prisoner who was arrested without an indictment is a human value before he is a university professor, doctor, minister, member of parliament, journalist, university student or political activist. He sits blindfolded, handcuffed and naked in the bitter cold, reciting in his heart the poems of the great Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim (who is a member of the Druze sect), and then a jailer or prison director who is also a member of the same sect, or a Jew, Christian or Muslim, comes and stomps on his tortured head in implementation of the orders of an extremist minister who hates Arabs and hates everyone who does not share his ideas, even if he is a Jew like him!!

This is a generational conflict that will not be
resolved in one war or in several battles. It is a conflict that has been going on for a hundred years and may continue for another hundred years. The conflict will not be resolved according to Ben-Gvir’s ideas, Smotrich’s plans, or any extremist’s ideas. As usual, the extremists leave, and we and our children are left remembering moments of glory and many moments that we regret.

The occupation’s wiping out of the face of the earth the seven thousand year old city of Gaza, is not the concern of the Druze, the Jews, the Christians, the Sunni Muslims, the Shiites, or any other group. It is a savage conflict in which no group is proud to be involved.

At this very time, many Jewish rabbis are trying to meet with the leaders of the Palestinian community and ask them to cooperate in rebuilding Gaza and talk about the future. It is unreasonable that the owners of the conflict are trying to change their stereotypical image in the minds of the Palestinians and we are Arabs and there is no bridge of understanding bet
ween us!!

We have Druze friends and brothers with whom we share a common destiny and a common destiny everywhere in the world. We are proud of their friendship and their steadfast positions towards just causes in history.

Gentlemen and people of religious, social and political standing:

During the first Intifada, specifically in 1988, a delegation from the Deheishe camp visited the town of Yanuh and met with the late Sheikh Amin Tarif. The delegation complained about the behavior of some Druze recruits against the people of the West Bank. The Sheikh issued his famous statement (a picture is attached), which stated: Deprivation and boycott of every Druze recruit who practices inhumane acts in the occupied territories.

Source: Maan News Agency