A motion calling for an urgent debate in the Israel Parliament of the Syrian Government’s military suppression of the Druze people of that country was yesterday referred to the Knesset Foreign Affairs Committee, with the consent of deputy Sheik Jaber el Moadi, leader of the Israel Druze community who offered the motion.
Premier Moshe Sharett expressed the sympathy of his government for the Druze in Syria and concern for their fate. (Reports from Damascus said that Syrian Army artillery had levelled three of 12 Druze villages.) He counselled caution in dealing with the problem in the Knesset.
Sheik el Moadi, speaking for the 20,000 Israeli Druze, vehemently condemned the military attacks on the villages of his kinsmen in the Arab state. He pointed out that the Druze community in Israel had strong religious ties with the community in Syria. He declared that Israel could not remain indifferent to the fate of the Syrian Druze under dictator Adib Shishakly and asked the Knesset to investigate the suppression of the Syrian Druze community.
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