MENA Minorities

The frontline in the suburbs of Damascus is coming closer to Jaramana, which is inhabited by a large number of Druze and Christians. The city had in 2009 around 190.000 inhabitants but the actual number must be way higher since many refugees live there. The city was also home to a sizeable number of mainly Christian refugees from Iraq but I don't know if they are still there. According to opposition site All4Syria many Druze have fled from Jaramana to still relatively safe Suwaida.  A translated version of the All4Syria article can be found at The Syrian Observer : The events of the night of Saturday, 6 September in Dweilaa, Kashkool and Jaramana, in Damascus, when opposition fighters entered the Dukhania neighborhood, were traumatic for all who witnessed them.   Thousands of people fled their houses minutes after the attack begun, running through the streets of Kashkool, carrying all that they could to Dweilaa or Jaramana.   Upon arriv...

Christians mobilize against Mideast menace by Associated Press

Jabhat al-Nusra is capturing more hostages in Quinatira west of #Syria , this time Druze according to activists from the region. — Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) 2. September 2014 Israel 'cooperating with Assad' in Golan Heights   by Kate Shuttleworth, DW The recent seizure of the Quneitra border crossing by Islamist extremists fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces marked a major escalation in the impact Syria's civil war has had on Israel. Fighters from the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's branch in Syria, expelled Assad's forces from the area and abducted 43 United Nations peacekeepers in the process. That brought the Islamist extremists within yards of Israeli positions, forcing Israel to close their side of Quneitra crossing and order farmers off agricultural land on the border. (...) Israel prepares to accept Syrian refugees Until now Israel has largely refused to accept any Syrians displaced by the civil war, and neighboring countries...

I have touched the phenomenon of Aramean nationalism among Israel's Christians population  - which is kinda connected with the attempts of recruiting Christians into the IDF - here and here already. Now Haaretz features an article about it but disappoints for mainly two reasons: No mention that Aramean nationalism in Israel is foremost found among the tiny Maronite community (not all Christians) and no discussion of the active part the state is playing in these regards. Israeli Christian community, neither Arab nor Palestinian, are fighting to save identity by Judy Maltz, Haaretz

Readers of this blog might remember, that the case of Swiss nationals fighting in Syria for the YPG-affiliated Syriac Military Council had been a topic here already. Now German magazine Focus published a report about this approximately 10 fighters and the support they are receiving from the neutral country. „Kampf ist christliche Pflicht“ Kreuzzug gegen den Terror: Schweizer Christen ziehen gegen IS in den Krieg by Focus Online A very great article by Rania Abouzei for National Geographic deals with the current political situation of the Christians in northern Iraq, including it's leadership, plans for autonomy and the recent phenomena of Christian militias, even though their establishment is (so far) rather symbolic. The latter is a huge difference to the passivity of the Christians during the civil war after the fall of Saddam Hussain, when the Christians reacted with passivity to persecution. This shift is also reflected by the contacts of the Assyrian Democratic Movem...