Voices from Suwayda, Syria’s open wound that looks towards Israel

For those living in Suwayda, Damascus is synonymous with betrayal. “Here, the locals raised the flag of the Syrian revolution, sang its anthems and celebrated the fall of the al-Assad regime,” says Ghina Shumari, an activist. “Some factions even took part in the liberation of Damascus. A Druze fighter, standing in Umayyad Square, told me he had been waiting for that moment for sixty years. He was later killed whilst defending his city from forces originating from the very same jihadist milieu he had fought against in the past.”

One year on from the Suwayda massacre, the city is a whirlwind of commemorations, meetings, demonstrations and rallies. The five-coloured flags of the Druze community fly in every square; even simple roundabouts have been renamed Martyrs’ Squares. The martyrs are the thousands of people killed by the advance of the Damascus armed forces – those of Ahmed al Sharaa, supported by Sunni Bedouins. Estimates put the death toll at around 1,700, with 200,000 displaced. The harrowing accounts of those clashes have been included in a government report on the crimes committed. However, the trials are being held before a military court rather than an independent civil judiciary, and no convictions have been handed down to date. “A year ago, I witnessed a massacre on our streets. Hundreds of people were abducted and around 100 are still missing. Their families do not even know if they are still alive. The mothers are taking action, searching their destroyed homes for photographs of their slain children,” says Loubna al Baset, another activist.

A wound that is unlikely ever to heal. For, in addition to the deaths, there is also the politics intertwined with the tragedy of this sort of southern city-state, facing out onto the world. Geographically, it would be the strategic crossroads between Syria, Jordan and Israel; in reality, it is trapped, with no way out, almost like an outcast. It is in a disastrous economic situation. The Druze Jabel, the plateau surrounding Suwayda, is one of the areas that has suffered most from desertification, and the reduction in fertile land has exacerbated the economic situation by increasing its dependence on Damascus. “Almost every family has at least one relative living or working abroad. Local job opportunities are limited. The war, the collapse of institutions, insecurity, restrictions on freedom of movement and the current siege have damaged agriculture, trade and small businesses. Young people are facing unemployment, political instability and a lack of concrete economic prospects. This has led to increased emigration and a greater reliance on financial support from family abroad,” says Ghina, who is now studying in the UK.

When the local authorities asked to open another border crossing with Jordan, their request was refused because Suwayda is seen by everyone as a source of instability. Above all, it is a hub for Captagon trafficking. Traffickers use small hot-air balloons to deliver the drugs across the border. In Jordan, the issue is taken very seriously, and Amman’s F-16 fighter jets frequently cross into Syria to bomb warehouses filled with Captagon in the vicinity of Suwayda.

Whilst the road south remains partially closed, the same applies to the road north leading to Damascus. The city’s residents describe the situation as a siege. Whilst voting was taking place in other provinces to elect some of the members of the new Parliament, Suwayda was sealed off by government checkpoints. For the second year running, 14,000 students were unable to sit their exams, whilst the inhabitants of 36 Druze villages remain displaced. Many of these villages have been set alight and are now under the control of forces affiliated with Damascus. There was therefore no voting here, for security reasons. In the end, al-Sharaa selected only three representatives from the city to take to Parliament, none of whom enjoyed the slightest local support. The celebrations in Damascus, Aleppo and elsewhere to mark the first session of Parliament were viewed with irritation in Suwayda. “Any political opening should begin with an end to the siege, the return of the displaced, ensuring students have access to education, the release of detainees, an investigation into the crimes committed, and the establishment of local representation and local autonomy,” explains Ghina.

Thus, for some, the only option is to look to Israel, where the Druze minority has close ties with many residents of Suwayda. On the anniversary of the massacre, one of the Druze spiritual leaders, Hikmat al Hijri, stated that the city is ready to become “an autonomous entity under the protection of another state” or “to join another state”. Where ‘another state’ obviously refers to Israel, which, since December 2024 – when al-Assad fell – has severed all dialogue with the opposition to the Syrian regime and has instead launched thousands of incursions, occupying southern Syria. Levant24, a widely read news portal, has since recorded over a thousand Israeli airstrikes, more than 1,100 ground incursions, over 200 cases of arbitrary detention, 38 killings and the occupation of a strip of land more than 20 kilometres deep. Some settlers periodically attempt to cross the 1974 demarcation line, but are intercepted and turned back by the Israeli military themselves. For Damascus, the Druze serve the interests of the Israeli occupation because they are used as a ‘bridgehead’ on Syrian territory. Al Hijri highlights this ambiguity and has a large following. “Society is divided,” Hadi tells us; his entire family still lives in Suwayda. “Some are in favour of joining Israel or seeking its protection. They believe they have no real chance of survival and that they would have a better life with the Muslims. Others, however, are opposed and fear being used as part of a wider plan, being left to fend for themselves, being regarded as traitors in the future and losing their status as Syrians.”

“A large section of Suwayda’s population believes that, without Israeli military intervention to deter Syrian government forces and tribal fighters, the violence could have escalated into mass ethnic cleansing,” says Ghina. “This does not mean that everyone in Suwayda wishes to become part of Israel. A significant section of society does not consider itself to be part of the Syrian state in its current Islamist form, nor subordinate to Israel.” Al Sharaa has not abandoned the idea of mediating with the Druze. This week he sent the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Antonios Saad from al Hijri to act as a mediator. Their embrace, captured in several photographs, shows the leaders of two minority groups, both fearful and searching for valid reasons to trust al Sharaa.