The Interior Ministry said last Thursday that Druze on the annexed Golan Heights will not be forced to carry Israeli identity cards, at least for the time being. “Things will be done gradually and reasonably,” Haim Kubersky, director general of the Ministry, told Israel Radio.
Israel’s pressure on the 14,000 Golan Druze, most of whom regard themselves as Syrian citizens, to accept Israeli ID cards, raised tensions in the territory. The Druze, a non-Arab Moslem sect, held a four-day general strike and imposed religious sanctions on the minority in their community that accepted Israeli ID cards. Kubersky said that for the present ID cards issued by the Military Government would be valid for Druze.
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