A would-be happy link with Syria

AP

PERCHED between Israel, their occupier for more than four decades, and Syria, perhaps soon to govern them again, the 20,000 Druze of the Golan naturally seek out interests that are common to their two powerful patrons as a way of improving their own precarious situation. By the by, they even hope to serve as a peace-building bridge between the two. Some optimists see the future Golan as a sort of Hong Kong, continuing to enjoy the perks of Israel's dynamic economy and open society, while coming back under the sovereignty of a stricter, less developed Syria. Whoever becomes prime minister of Israel after its recent general election will be likely to open a diplomatic “track” to Syria. Barack Obama has also sounded keen.

As a hoped-for harbinger of co-operation, the Druze manage to send their apples to the markets in Damascus, Syria's capital, with the blessing of the Israeli government, which even provides an Israeli export subsidy for every tonne sent. The local growers' co-operatives have been authorised to send 8,000 tonnes this year, the biggest consignment since Israel's then prime minister, Ariel Sharon, first agreed in 2004 to allow this trade with Syria.

Though not exactly a humanitarian cargo, the apples are shipped in Red Cross lorries through the UN-patrolled border at Kuneitra. The first three loads crossed into Syria this week. Their main importance is more diplomatic than economic. For Syria, they show sovereignty over the occupied region and solidarity with its people, who have kept faith with the Arab motherland despite Israel's efforts to woo them. For Israel, they offer a first glimmer of the open borders and free trade which, it insists, must be part of a future peace treaty.

For the Druze growers themselves, says Assad Safdie, who manages a state-of-the-art cold-storage fruit warehouse on the Golan, exporting to Syria helps them compete against local Jewish settlers, who also grow apples and get more generous water allocations from Israel's government. “They get twice as many apples per dunam,” he says, “but ours are twice as tasty.”

Beyond the price the apples fetch ($6m last year, passed back in cash) and the political capital both countries make out of them, the Golan Druze, with almost every family owning an orchard, say they and their apples have a part to play in a gradual, mutual de-demonisation that goes with peacemaking. They hope that talks between Israeli and Syrian officials under Turkish mediation will soon resume.

The Druze are an ancient sect within Islam. The Golan ones are part of a Syrian Druze community that numbers 700,000. Another 250,000 live in Lebanon and about 100,000 in Israel proper, where, unlike other Muslim and Christian Arabs, they serve in the army.

The Red Cross ferries across the border hundreds of young Golan Druze who study in Damascus, encouraged and paid for by Syria's government. Almost all go home once qualified, many to jobs in Israel itself. Hundreds more graduate from Israeli universities. Druze families used to call and wave sadly across the border to each other at a “shouting hill”, just outside Majdal Shams, a modest town on the north-east edge of the Golan Heights. Now they direct-dial or Skype. They still cannot cross the border to meet but they can and do hop over to Jordan for frequent reunions.

“This openness is good,” says Selim Brake, who has moved from Majdal Shams to the Israeli town of Karmiel and teaches Israeli politics at the University of Haifa. “It reduces tensions. It helps Israel's image in Syria. Demonisation is passé. Both countries have a compelling interest in peace. I believe in our community's role as a link. The apples could be a pilot for economic projects in the future.”

Maray Taiseer, a fiercely pro-Syrian nationalist who runs a medical and cultural centre in Majdal Shams, says much the same. “We know Syria's not perfect. But Israel's propaganda blackens Syria much more than is true. On the other hand some Syrians find it hard to grasp the complexities of Israeli society.” He recalls frank conversations with his own brother, a retired Syrian army officer. “Yes, we'll have problems after Syria's return,” he says.

Most Golan Druze, well educated and relatively prosperous, are comfortable in Israel's free-wheeling society. Mr Taiseer has a doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and considers himself, despite his reservations about Zionism, a disciple of Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, a famous doveish-Zionist scientist and philosopher. “We will have to adjust. But our roots are very deep and strong. And the Syrians will be sensible enough to take account of our experience.”

Mr Taiseer expects a bonanza of foreign investment in the Golan once a peace deal is struck. The Druze, he says, will be in the forefront. “I don't think I'm being too Utopian. Golan Druze were always very involved in Syrian political life. And very accepted. The Mossad [Israel's intelligence service] never understood this.”

Dr Brake says not everyone in the community is so keen. “People calculate: there's no reason not to sound pro-Syrian. In Israel you lose nothing. If the Syrians do return, it'll be notched up to your credit.”