Noncooperation in the Golan Heights: A Case of Nonviolent Resistance

Abstract

The Syrian Druze of the Golan Heights are a distinct Arab population in the Middle East whose tenets “developed in the eleventh century as an offshoot of the Isma’illiya, itself a radical fringe of Shiite Islam.”¹ In the face of centuries of persecution at the hands of orthodox Sunni Muslims and the more mystical Shiites, “the Druze developed the concept of taqia—camouflage—keeping their religious communal identity secret.”² This communal secrecy is reinforced by a prohibition on marriage outside of the sect, insistence that one must be born a Druze and cannot through conversion become Druze, and restraint from proselytizing.

Here is a modern day example of a nonviolent campaign, of a people very small in number, facing incredibly powerful odds militarily, saying, “We don’t have a military option. It doesn’t pay for us to throw rocks or stones. We can never ‘out violence’ the Israeli army. But we can— through unity, cooperation and taking a principled stand, and accepting suffering—just refuse to cooperate and withhold our consent, and reasonably come to a solution that reserves and preserves our own rights and interests, at least in some measure.”

—Jonathan Kuttab, Palestinian human rights lawyer, interview, January 1983, Jerusalem