Sight of Israeli Druze fighting in Gaza horrifies Lebanon's community

At a funeral procession for an Israeli Druze soldier killed in Gaza this week, mourners wore T-shirts bearing his face next to an Israeli flag. Loved ones kissed Wessam Mahmoud's casket, which was draped in the blue-and-white Star of David.

What was noticeable about the scene were the portraits of prominent Syrian and Lebanese Druze leaders seen adorning a wall as the procession passed through the Druze village of Beit Jann, in northern Israel.

The paintings of historic Syrian Druze figures Sultan al-Atrash and Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) founder Kamal Jumblatt, an ardent advocate of Palestinians before his death in 1977, raised eyebrows in Lebanon, home to a significant Druze community.

“I am so ashamed of this image that Druze from Palestine are raising the portraits of Sultan Attrache and Kamal Jumblatt behind an Israeli flag covering the coffin of an IDF (Israeli army) soldier,” Walid Jumblatt, son of Kamal and a de facto leader of Lebanon’s Druze community, wrote on X a day later. 

“What an insult to the memory of these two great Arab heroes,” he added in the post. 

Read more: Sight of Israeli Druze fighting in Gaza horrifies Lebanon's community