Syrians protest against Israeli attempts to ‘divide south’

Mass protests erupted across southern Syria on Monday, in response to statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Security Minister, Israel Katz, who threatened on Sunday to prevent any Syrian military presence in the region.

Both Netanyahu and Katz also confirmed that Israel’s illegal occupation of the Golan Heights buffer zone in the south would remain “indefinitely”, breaching the 1974 disengagement plan between Damascus and Tel Aviv. 

The comments are widely seen as an attempt to cut off the south from the central government and potentially pave the way for Israeli-engineered division of the country.

In Quneitra province, protests took place around Khan Arnabeh roundabout, where demonstrators raised banners calling for “Syrian unity” and “rejecting division,” while chanting slogans against the Israeli occupation.

Said Mohammed, an activist in Quneitra, stated that the protests were a response to Israel’s presence in southern Syria and a call for the international community to pressure Israel to comply with the 1974 disengagement agreement. He also noted that the demonstrations coincided with the presence of warplanes, believed to be Israeli, flying over the province.

In Daraa, activists organized protests in several areas of the province, including the cities of Bosra al-Sham, Atman, Nawa, Dael, Jassem, al-Muzayrib, Kafr Shams, and Jebab.

Media activist and civil society figure Samer al-Miqdad told The New Arab’s Arabic sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that large crowds participated in the demonstration in Bosra al-Sham, where protesters strongly rejected all projects threatening Syria, particularly those from the Israeli occupation. He noted that the largest and most organised demonstration took place in Bosra al-Sham.

In Suweida, dozens of Druze activists held a protest in al-Karama Square in the city centre without prior planning or coordination. The demonstrators expressed their rejection of Netanyahu’s statements and denounced the silence of the Damascus government and its lack of response. The protesters view the Israeli statements as primarily directed at the Damascus government, emphasising that it is “the government’s duty to respond as the representative of the state”.

Katz and Netanyahu made comments aimed at Syria’s Druze minority, attempting to divide them from the central government and the new post-Assad Syria. Reports in the Israeli media in January indicated that the Israeli government wanted to split Syria into “four autonomous cantons” based on ethnic and religious lines, something that the vast majority of Syrians reject, including the Druze.

Protesters held up banners in Suweida addressing the comments directly, with banners reading “The people of Suweida are part of Syria and will accept nothing but the Syrian state. Syrian law is their protector and the guarantor of their rights.”

In Daraa, known as the cradle of Syria’s revolution, thousands of protesters marched through the city, with chants including “Netanyahu you pig, Syria won’t be divided, Syria is free, Israel out, Daraa will remain with Syria until death.”.

Activists and civil society organizations have called for additional demonstrations tomorrow, Tuesday, in the cities of Damascus, Latakia, Homs, and Suweida, demanding that Israel stop its violations and withdraw from the occupied territories.

The Syrian government has not issued an official statement regarding Netanyahu’s remarks. However, interim Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa previously described the Israeli incursion as “unjustified,” noting that the security justifications Israel had previously cited are no longer valid