Rare Troubles Among Golan Druze

Trouble between the Druze population of the occupied Golan Heights has been reported in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the northern Golan. This is rather unusual. Israeli version here: violence broke out as police raided a restaurant in the town to carry out a search. Some police officers were cut off inside the restaurant for some time but were later rescued. Also see the Jerusalem Post here, which speaks of 1000 demonstrators surrounding the police until Druze elders and police negotiated a release. Arab vcrsion here (in Arabic, but even if you don't read the language click through as there's a clear photo of an overturned Israeli police vehicle): trouble also involved the home of a man arrested at Ben Gurion airport; police were held hostage for awhile, etc.

The point here is that the Golan Druze have been among the more docile subjects of occupation; they are virtually the only Syrian citizens who remained in Golan after 1967. Lately there've been reports of possible Israeli settlement activity around a Druze holy site (Arabic), and there have been other tensions as well.

Hat tip here to Zeinobia, for pointing me to these stories.