Localism: paying the price
Localism can be summed up in one Picture.
A Military Burial in a small village.
The dead soldier was a Druze Captain, serving in the Israeli Army. In the foreground; the coffin, draped in the Israeli Flag. In the Background; mural poster of Sultan El-Atrash, hero of Arab resistance to the Ottomans, and of the Arab revolt against French Imperial rule, and Kamal Joumblat, a hero of Palestine Liberation.
What gives?
Freedom
Bani-Ma3rouf, known as the Druze, have always been true to freedom.
They learned from persecution that Freedom was always local; it means land, control over one’s land. In disputed territories, how can the community remain?
By paying tribute.
An Exile Tribute. One part of the family is exiled in Syria, till the time comes to retake the Golan. Maybe even Palestine. The cost is partial dispossession, even if you live among close kin, on the other side. And this means potentially dying, if called upon, under the flag of the Syrian Arab Army.
A Blood Tribute. The other part of the family remains behind, under Israeli rule, till the time comes to reunite with the rest of the family. The cost is blood; in Israel, to retain your land rights, you have to serve in the Army. And serving means potentially dying, if called upon, in the service of Israel’s “Tsahal.”
For all the protests, global freedom starts at the local level.
The community must always endure
Localism cannot ignore global implications. But when it pays the price, the community can even push back, when needed, even in the face of the strongest of diktats.
…there’s always time for another Arab revolt…