Syria condemned the “illegal elections” being held by “Israel” for the first time in the occupied Golan Heights, as an attempt to assimilate the Druze minority, who for their part have largely refused to take part in the polls.
Members of the Druze community residing under “Israeli” occupation for over half a century took to the streets on Tuesday in an effort to interfere in the municipal elections that Tel Aviv had introduced for the first time in the Golan Heights.
Carrying Syrian and Druze rainbow flags, hundreds of members of the Muslim minority sect assembled outside the gates of polling stations, trying to prevent other Druze community members from voting.
“The Golan’s identity is Arab and Syrian,” they chanted. Amid sporadic clashes with police, religious elders wearing their distinctive white caps, symbolizing religious piety, urged the youth not to confront the security forces, who in some instances used tear gas against protesters.
The “Israeli” decision to introduce elections to the local councils in the territory, which it has held since 1967, divided the Druze community ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
“Candidates and those who come to vote will have a religious and social prohibition put upon them,”said Sheikh Khamis Khanjar. “What bigger punishment is there than this?”
Damascus slammed the “illegal elections,” noting that Syria “fully supports” the Druze resistance to “Israeli” occupation. The Syrian Foreign Ministry accused Tel Aviv of trying to legitimize their grab of the Golan, calling Tuesday’s vote a “Judaization” attempt on the Druze by “Israel.”
“Syria reiterates that the occupied Golan Heights is an integral part of its soil, and it will work to return the terrain to the motherland sooner or later by all possible means,” the Ministry said in two letters, addressed to the UN chief and the UN Security Council president.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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