|
(Continued from page 22)
apart the once tight-knit Druse community on the Golan Heights. Angry arguments between supporters and foes of Syrian President Bashar Assad have pitted husbands against wives, driven a wedge between neighbors and even threated to ruin an upcoming wedding.
• The two camps scrawl tit-for-tat graffiti on walls and run rival news websites. At a brawl last month, regime supporters pelted their rivals with eggs, shoes and rocks, prompting religious leaders to declare a ban on political demonstrations in the Golan's four Druse villages.
• "We shout at each other, when before, we used to say hello," lamented Assad supporter Ghandi Kahlouni, a 53-year-old pharmacist.
• The growing divisions between those backing Assad and those sympathizing with Syrian rebels are surprising, considering the tight weave of the 22,000-strong Druse community on the Golan, a fenced-off plateau Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981.
• Since the capture by Israel, most of the Golan Druse -- followers of a secretive offshoot of Islam -- have continued to identify themselves as Syrian, even though many have never been to Syria, and in public at least they all backed Assad's regime as their one-day savior from Israeli rule.
• ___
Former Penn State president faces scrutiny over role in scandal; 2 administrators face charges
• More than a month after an explosive investigative report accused Penn State's
|
|
