The program covers Syria’s sectarian violence, Israeli Druze empowerment, and Palestinian perspectives on reconstruction in Gaza
Facing the Middle East with Felice Friedson aired a powerful new episode this week exploring the fate of minority communities in Syria and the evolving role of the Druze in Israel. The eighth episode, released online on Monday, investigates the safety of Alawites, Druze, and Christians in post-Assad Syria while also showcasing grassroots innovation inside Israel’s Druze community.
The program opens with a field report from Maghar, a predominantly Druze town in northern Israel, where residents are watching Syria’s deepening instability with growing alarm. Tensions have risen following the killing of about 1,000 Alawites and several Christians in the Syrian coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus. “The recent fighting between pro-Assad forces and the rebel government escalated to a trembling point,” Friedson says in her introduction.
Hundreds of Christians? Massacred? These particular words … are misleading and dangerous.
Friedson also warns of disinformation circulating online. “Hundreds of Christians? Massacred? These particular words were used in certain publications,” she says, stressing the need for responsible reporting. “They are misleading and dangerous.”
Syrian Christians interviewed by The Media Line’s journalist on the ground rejected exaggerated claims of mass killings. Friedson cautions that inflated headlines can fuel dangerous retaliation: “A little less keyboard clicking and more judgment will go a long way toward protecting those who live in seriously unpredictable situations.”
Our community has always built bridges, not walls
The episode then turns to Israel’s Druze community, estimated at around 150,000 people. Interviews with Druze leaders emphasize their long-standing integration into Israeli society and service in the military. “We are Druze, Arab by culture and Israeli by nationality,” Eyal Ganim, an entrepreneur and former security officer, explains. “Our community has always built bridges, not walls.”
Though the idea of a separate Druze state has surfaced amid Syria’s instability, most interviewed reject the notion. “I don’t think a Druze state is the answer,” says Rikad Khiraldin, former head of the Hurfeish local council. “The Druze in Syria are Syrians in every way.”
The episode marks a historic development: for the first time, Syrian Druze were allowed to make a pilgrimage to a holy site in Israel, and the Israeli government approved limited employment opportunities for Syrian Druze within its borders.
In Daliyat al-Karmel, a Druze-majority town in northern Israel, the program spotlights Lotus, a tech hub empowering Druze women to enter Israel’s high-tech workforce. Founded by Maysa Halabi Alshiekh, the initiative balances modern employment with traditional values. “I wanted to make a tech hub for women that they can also have trainings and also they can work remotely… and be also a great mom,” Halabi Alshiekh says.
The hub, funded by the Portland Trust, employs around 100 women and has inspired a companion project, 5-Tech, aimed at men. Participants shared stories of overcoming societal expectations and breaking barriers, with one, Nur Aborish, saying, “It has to do a lot with changing perceptions and believing that nothing is impossible.”
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It has to do a lot with changing perceptions and believing that nothing is impossible
The episode closes with a look at Gaza, where displaced Palestinians are reacting to the US-backed reconstruction and resettlement plan following the war with Hamas. The plan involves limited crossings between Gaza’s north and south and collaboration between Israel, Egypt, Qatar, and the United States. Many Gazans voiced reluctance to leave the Strip despite widespread destruction. “Gaza is our country,” resident Ali Alloush says. “We don’t want to migrate elsewhere.”
The episode wraps with coverage of a global Jewish unity summit hosted in Haifa by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, drawing 150 Jewish leaders from around the world.
Episode 8 of Facing the Middle East presents a multifaceted view of the challenges and resilience of Middle Eastern minority communities, with reporting from inside the Gaza Strip and northern Israel, and analysis of the crisis unfolding across the border in Syria.