Leaders of Israel’s Druze community have appealed to President Yitzhak Navon for Israel to restrain its Christian allies in Lebanon who are allegedly pillaging Druze villages in south Lebanon.
The appeal, also addressed to Premier Menachem Begin and Chief of Staff Gen. Rafael Eitan, claimed that men of Bashir Gemayel’s Phalangist army entered Druze villages in south Lebanon last week, beat the men, taped the women and looted shops. They urged the Israeli army to keep the Phalangists out and said they would fight to free their villages from Phalangist control. Druze elders in Lebanon said Phalangists burst into their villages last week, after Israeli forces cleared the area of Palestine terrorists, and proclaimed: “We are the masters here now.”
Druze-Christian antagonism in Lebanon goes back more than 100 years. Between 1840-1860 an estimated 50,000 Christians and 6000 Druze were killed in inter-communal battles. In recent years, the Phalangists have become Israel’s allies against the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon. Their forces are armed and financed by Israel and the Druze fear they will take advantage of their ascendancy to settle old scores. The Phalangists are rightwing. Lebanon’s large Druze community is led by a socialist, Walid Jumblatt.
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