Druze in London and Paris Demand an End to the Slaughter

Druze continue to be slaughtered in Sweida, by both the Syrian army that was sent in by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, ostensibly to protect them — and by the Sunni Bedouin in Sweida, who regard the Druze as Infidels and thus deserve, as the “most vile of created beings,” to be killed. The word has gone out, and Bedouins from across Syria have been streaming into Sweida to join in the fun of killing the Druze. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who described the embattled Druze in Syria as “the brothers of our brothers,” had the IDF bomb sites in Sweida where the Syrian army was located, and to warn al-Sharaa that he had to keep his army from killing Druze, by bombing his army headquarters in Damascus and to drive the point home even more emphatically, by striking a site near the presidential palace just outside Damascus.

Druze and their supporters have shown up in both London and Paris to protest the slaughter in Sweida. More on their protests can be found here: “Syrians protest Sweida killings in London, Paris,” AFP, July 19, 2025:

In central London, around 80 protesters chanted “God protect Druze” and “Stop supporting Jolani”, referring to Syrian interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s nom de guerre, which he had abandoned after his Islamist group seized Damascus late last year.

Unlike the Trump administration, and like the Israelis, the Druze are not fooled by Al-Sharaa’s replacement of his guerrilla fatigues with a suit and tie, his abandonment of his jihadist nom de guerre al-Jolani, with its implication of a jihad to “recover the Golan,” and his claim to long ago having abandoned his support for Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Demonstrators in the British capital held up placards calling for an end to the deadly violence in Sweida and for a humanitarian corridor to be opened up via the Jordanian border.

More than 900 people have been killed in the Druze-majority province since Sunday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

The sectarian clashes between the Druze and Bedouin tribes, who are Sunni Muslim, have drawn in the Islamist-led government as well as Israel and armed tribes from other parts of Syria.

The Syrian government’s soldiers went to Sweida, where instead of keeping the sides apart — their ostensible reason for entering the city — they joined the Bedouins in slaughtering the Druze. The IDF, on the other hand, conduced airstrikes in Sweida to protect the Druze by hitting Sunni Muslim gunmen, whether they were Syrian troops or Bedouin. And for the same reason, to press the point, the IDF also hit Syrian army headquarters in Damascus and a site close to the presidential palace. This caused the Syrians to pull back from Sweida. Under American pressure, the Israelis then agreed to allow the Syrians to go back into Sweida for 48 hours, but only to stop the killing, and not behave as they had before, when they participated in the killing of hundreds of Druze. By all reports, the killing has not stopped, but the Israelis are holding back from launching new airstrikes in Sweida, but only because the Americans, quite mistakenly, insist on it.

In London, protest organiser Emad al Eismy told AFP atrocities were still going on in Sweida.

“Shootings, beheadings, raping, killing children, (torching) shops, homes. It’s a barbarian movement going on in Sweida,” he said at the protest outside BBC headquarters.

AFP correspondents in Sweida reported clashes on Saturday, despite a ceasefire ordered by the government following a US-brokered deal to avert further Israeli military intervention….

Strange, is it not, when Israel is ready, willing, and able to protect the Druze, that the Americans are trying to prevent the Jewish state’s military intervention. Trump has a bee in his bonnet about Syria. He’s been taken in by al-Sharaa; he wants to believe that if only we help the Syrian state, as by lifting sanctions, the reformed al-Sharaa will construct a unified state where various lions will lie down with various lambs, and all manner of things shall be well. He has no real idea about what has been happening, since the fall of Assad, to the minorities, not despite al-Sharaa, but because of him. T he evidence is in: the Alawites, the Christians, and the Druze can expect nothing good from Ahmad al-Sharaa and his government. It is still not known if Syria’s Kurds will mange to fend off the Arabs if they refuse to fold their own militia into the Syrian army.

The United Nations has called for an end to the bloodshed and demanded an independent investigation of the violence….

The UN? Surely that hopelessly antisemitic organization will find a way to blame Israel, and only Israel, for the bloodshed in Sweida.

At the Paris protest, Aida Haladi wore black and clutched a picture of her 52-year-old brother whom she said was killed in front of his home Thursday morning in Sweida city.

She said he had stepped out to grab some blood pressure medication he had forgotten.

“He was an honest man. He never tried to hurt a soul,” she said.

“Where is France?” Haladi said, accusing Syria’s interim president of complicity and angry at France’s leader Emmanuel Macron for having hosted him in Paris in May….

The French president doesn’t like Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has a habit of ignoring European diktats, especially those from Macron, who keeps talking about the absolute necessity of creating a Palestinian state. But he did take a shine to Ahmed al-Sharaa, who said all the right things to Macron about wanting a peace with all of his neighbors.

The Observatory said at least 940 people had been killed since Sunday, including 326 Druze fighters and 262 Druze civilians, 165 of whom were summarily executed.

What a grim picture these protesters, many of whom had just learned of the murders of their own close relatives, have painted. And of the 940 people killed in Sweida up until now, 588 — that is, two-thirds of the deaths — were Druze. And many of them were civiilians. The Sunnis who were killed, both army men and Bedouin tribesmen, were all combatants. Of the Druze dead, 262 were civilians. How does al-Sharaa explain so many civilian deaths among the Druze?

After the ceasefire in Sweida was declared by the Americans to have been reached, al-Sharaa followed up with a televised speech in which he announced an immediate ceasefire in Sweida and added: “The Syrian state is committed to protecting all minorities and communities in the country… We condemn all crimes committed” in Sweida.

Who’s he kidding? Let’s see how many of al-Sharaa’s soldiers who murdered Druze in Sweida will ever be charged. And how many Sunni Bedouin will be rounded up, do you think, for the crimes they committed in Sweida? As many Sunnis will be brought to justice for killing Druze, I am convinced, as those who were prosecuted for murdering Alawites in Latakia, or for killing Christians in Damascus and Aleppo. That is: none.