Israeli Druze Research Articles

Identification of a novel PCNT founder pathogenic variant in the Israeli Druze population

Majewski Osteodysplastic Primordial Dwarfism type II (MOPDII) is a form of dwarfism associated with severe microcephaly, characteristic skeletal findings, distinct dysmorphic features and increased risk for cerebral infarctions. The condition is caused by bi-allelic loss-of-function variants in the gene PCNT. Here we describe the identification of a novel founder pathogenic variant c.3465-1G > A observed in carriers from multiple Druze villages in Northern Israel. RNA studies show that the variant results in activation of a cryptic splice site causing a coding frameshift. The study was triggered by the diagnosis of a single child with MOPDII and emphasizes the advantages of applying next generation sequencing technologies in community genetics and the importance of establishing population-specific sequencing databases.

Reincarnation beliefs among Israeli Druze and the construction of a hard primordial identity

Most of the literature on reincarnation among the Druze attempts to shed light on its history and on those who believe in it. In this paper, we will argue that the Druze’s belief in reincarnation serves as one of the central components in defining their ethno-religious identity. Our study is based on an analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews with Israeli Druze university students. Findings suggest that the belief in reincarnation plays an important role in the lives of the Druze and it appears to serve as the most outstanding component in the young Druze’ definition of their primordial identity.

The Role of Military Service in the Integration/Segregation of Muslims, Christians and Druze within Israel

This study applies the negative peace/positive peace approach to internal nation-state relations between the majority and ethnic minority. This approach focuses on the policies implemented by the state. In order to understand the social system from its formation, an important focus should be given to the period of establishment of a new state, whereas physical borders are defined along with the borders of society, which determines who is included in the new nation and who is excluded. The conclusions are based on the case of the Israeli Druze, an ethnic minority with whom the state of Israel and its Jewish majority have achieved positive peace. This study suggests that the positive peace with the Druze was achieved following their integration in the army—as a decision of the state of Israel—that lead to their integration in the Israeli society. Conversely to the Israeli Muslims, where a negative peace is maintained, following the early year’s state policy to exclude them.

What Do They Want From My Life? Parent-Child Relationships as Perceived by Druze Adolescents in Israel

This research examined Druze adolescents’ perception of their relationships with parents in Israel. Israeli Druze is a small group accounting for only 2% of Israel’s population. The Druze society is patriarchal; it demands absolute loyalty to the values of religion, family, and clan. Our goal was to explore the impact of increasing intercultural contact with modern Israeli society and the outside world on parent-child relationships in a traditional society that demands absolute loyalty and obedience to elders. The researchers used the phenomenological approach to understand parent-child relationships from the perspective of the adolescents themselves. Twelve Druze adolescents, six females and six males ranging in age from 16 to 18, completed a semi-structured interview in which they were asked to describe their relationships with parents. Participants were prompted to describe a recent conflict, if any, and the way in which the conflict was resolved, as well as a positive and a negative interaction with parents in the past year. Thematic analyses revealed intergenerational conflict related to perceived acculturation gaps. Other consistent themes portrayed supportive parent-child relationships and the adolescents’ commitment to Druze heritage. Overall, findings suggest that although increasing exposure to modern society may lead to intergenerational conflict, Druze adolescents remained grounded in supportive family relationships and their religious heritage.

P792 Prevalence of inflammatory bowel diseases in Israeli Jewish and Druze adolescents, a longitudinal comparative study

P792 Prevalence of inflammatory bowel diseases in Israeli Jewish and Druze adolescents, a longitudinal comparative study

Does Multicultural Education Affect the Druze Heritage Curriculum?

Recent researches on the subject of education, the process of educational modifications, educational autonomy and school effectiveness, prove that the great importance of multicultural education in Israel, for the State of Israel is a mix of ethnic heterogeneity with varied national groups and religious beliefs and cultures, which take an active part in developing dialogue and mutual acceptance of the “other”, assuming that there is no “monopoly” on the truth (Gladi, 2009) [1], namely, the State’s majority does not control the minority’s educational processes. The current research focuses on the unique legacy of the Druze. The aim of the research is to identify the teachers’ attitudes towards the subject of the Druze heritage and multiculturalism in the Druze school system. The research question is how multiculturalism program embedded in the Druze education system. For this purpose, 5 teachers who teach the subject of Heritage were interviewed. The findings indicate that the subject of Heritage is a dual tool that enables implementing the curricula under certain circumstances. In the past, the subject was aimed to develop the new “Israeli Druze identity”, while at the present, it is aimed to elaborate multiculturalism in school. In addition, at the period of globalization and the massive media, the subject of heritage is balance and braking method for Druze youngsters, in order to strengthen their relations to the Druze values and beliefs.

“We Are Victims of Our Past . . .”— Israel’s Dark History Comes to Light in New Documentaries

“We Are Victims of Our Past . . .”— Israel’s Dark History Comes to Light in New Documentaries

Brides across the Border (Syrian Druze Bribes Who Have Married Israeli Druze Men of the Golan Heights after the Israeli Occupation in 1967)

This article describes the story of six Druze women from various ages, who were born in Syria and had married Druze men from the Golan Height, under the Israeli rule. These marriages had created a separation between the women and their family in Syria, and in some cases the separation was total and the women ceased seeing or meeting their families at all. Israel and Syria do not have diplomatic relations; in fact, they are considered enemies. This article displays the problems the Druze women to face, as well as to cope with the new society on the Israeli side.

Reconstructing Druze population history.

The Druze are an aggregate of communities in the Levant and Near East living almost exclusively in the mountains of Syria, Lebanon and Israel whose ~1000 year old religion formally opposes mixed marriages and conversions. Despite increasing interest in genetics of the population structure of the Druze, their population history remains unknown. We investigated the genetic relationships between Israeli Druze and both modern and ancient populations. We evaluated our findings in light of three hypotheses purporting to explain Druze history that posit Arabian, Persian or mixed Near Eastern-Levantine roots. The biogeographical analysis localised proto-Druze to the mountainous regions of southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq and southeast Syria and their descendants clustered along a trajectory between these two regions. The mixed Near Eastern–Middle Eastern localisation of the Druze, shown using both modern and ancient DNA data, is distinct from that of neighbouring Syrians, Palestinians and most of the Lebanese, who exhibit a high affinity to the Levant. Druze biogeographic affinity, migration patterns, time of emergence and genetic similarity to Near Eastern populations are highly suggestive of Armenian-Turkish ancestries for the proto-Druze.

EDITORIAL FOREWORD

This issue centers on two predominant themes: space, boundaries, and belonging from the end of empire to the early nation-state era; and the relationship between political discourse, political praxis, and values. The first section, “Belonging, Boundaries, and Law,” opens with Asher Kaufman's article, “Belonging and Continuity: Israeli Druze and Lebanon, 1982–2000,” on the spatial perceptions and practices of communities in the Middle East under the nation-state. Kaufman observes that only over the past few decades have scholars of the post–World War I order in the region begun to question “the ‘nation-state’ as the natural geographical and political unit of analysis.” Using Druze citizens of Israel before, during, and after Israel's occupation of South Lebanon as his case, he readjusts the lens toward substate, suprastate, and trans-state dynamics. Until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Druze communal and religious networks had spanned the whole of bilād al-shām, but these were radically interrupted by Israel's emergence as a bounded polity whose borders with its neighbors were reputedly sealed. This rupture precipitated the emergence of an Israeli Druze community that, isolated from broader Druze communal life and institutional frames, was expected to be loyal to the new state. Eschewing a national frame, Kaufman reveals how Druze, despite these obstacles, actually maintained “crossborder ties through marriage, licit and illicit trade, and religious practices.” Paradoxically, it was Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and its eighteen-year occupation of the South that allowed for a resumption of pre-1948 spatial practices, though these were complicated by Israeli Druze's multiple and sometimes conflicting allegiances. Such practices, restricted again after the Israeli withdrawal of 2000, continued in limited fashion until the start of the Syrian Civil War, which has propelled Israeli Druze to organize politically in support of Druze in Syria. Observing that the Druze continue to live in state and suprastate spatial scales, Kaufman proposes “using the concept ‘hybrid spatial scale’ as a tool for studying communities such as the Druze that operate on multiple territorial scales.”

Two Ethnographic Researchers Embark on a Narrative Journey

In this article two ethnographic researchers present a life story that emerged, almost against their will, as one of 120 in-depth interviews with Israeli Druze. The ethnographic study was designed to provide understanding of Israeli Druze society today through the discovery of thematic patterns. One interviewee, however, simply refused to follow the loosely structured interview format and told her story. Hana's story about the importance of her father in her professional success, and about her struggles to abide by the tenets of her religion, shed new light on the ethnographic data and taught these two researchers some new methodological sensibilities.

The Shishakli assault on the Syrian Druze and the Israeli response, January–February 1954

This article addresses Syrian leader Adib al-Shishakli's assault on the Syrian Druze minority in the mid-1950s, the Syrian Druze reaction, and contemporaneous observations and reactions from both the Israeli government and the Israeli Druze community to Shishakli's assault. The events analyzed in this article provide insight into the difficulties and opportunities the Jewish state had in cultivating minority allies in a hostile region, on the one hand, and the dilemmas Middle Eastern minorities had in seeking out the regionally beleaguered Jewish state's support, on the other.

Israeli Druze women's sex preferences when choosing obstetricians and gynecologists.

BackgroundConsideration and better understanding of patients’ needs on the part of the healthcare system might help increase the number of people seeking necessary medical care. Many studies have been conducted on patients’ preferences in choosing their health care provider, but the majority of them were conducted in modern western societies, establishing a need to explore other populations. The present study was performed in the Israeli Druze community which is composed of a uniquely traditional and religious population.We assessed the sex preference of Israeli Druze women regarding obstetricians/gynecologists, and identify other features that affect their choice.MethodWe conducted a cross-sectional study that included 196 Israeli Druze women who anonymously completed a 36-item questionnaire between January-July, 2011.ResultsMost (63.8%) of the responders preferred female obstetricians/gynecologists, while 74.5% had no sex preference for their family physicians. 68.6% of the religious women preferred female obstetricians/gynecologists as compared to 51.76% of those women who self-identified as secular. Most of the women (65%) preferred female obstetricians/gynecologists for intimate procedures, such as pelvic examination and pregnancy follow-up. The main reasons given were: feeling more comfortable with a female practitioner (69.7%), the belief that females are more gentle (56.6%), and being more embarrassed with male obstetricians/gynecologists (45.4%). Three factors were associated with the responders’ preferences for female obstetricians/gynecologists: their age and religious status, and the sex of their regular obstetricians/gynecologists. Women who preferred a female obstetrician/gynecologist assigned a lesser weight to the physician’s knowledge when choosing them. Older and religious women as well as those who attributed less weight to the physician’s professional knowledge were more likely to prefer a female obstetrician/gynecologist.ConclusionsThe majority of responders to our survey (Israeli Druze women), like those in other communities where religiousness and modesty are deeply rooted, prefer female obstetricians/gynecologists, with the overwhelming reasons given being feeling more comfortable and less embarrassed with females, and the notion that female obstetricians/gynecologists are more gentle during intimate procedures.

Future Orientation in a Traditional Society: Higher Education and the Israeli Druze

Future Orientation in a Traditional Society: Higher Education and the Israeli Druze

Genotyping of geographically diverse Druze trios reveals substructure and a recent bottleneck.

Druze individuals rarely marry outside their faith (often practicing consanguinity) and are thus believed to form a genetic isolate. To comprehensively characterize the genetic structure of the Druze population, we recruited and genotyped 40 parent-offspring trios from the Upper Galilee in Israel and the Golan Heights, attempting to capture different extended families (clans) across various geographical locations. Principal component (PC) and ADMIXTURE analyses demonstrated that Druze are close to, yet distinct from, other Middle-Eastern groups (Bedouins and Palestinians), supporting the Druze's Middle-Eastern origin and their recent genetic isolation. Reconstruction of the Druze demographic history using identical-by-descent (IBD) segments suggested an ≈15-fold reduction in population size taking place ≈22-47 generations ago, close to the documented time of the foundation of the Druze faith at the 11th century. Combining the Galilee and Golan Druze genotypes with previously published data on Druze from the Carmel (Israel) and Lebanon demonstrated that all four Druze communities are genetically distinct. The Lebanese group shared less IBD segments (within the group and with other groups) compared with the Israeli Druze and showed higher heterozygosity (suggesting less consanguinity), but was less diverse in PC space. These findings suggest complex recent and ancient demographic history of the Druze population.

Will “Education for Tradition” Be Enough in a Closing Circle of Secrets? The Case of the Israeli Druze

This article reports some of the results of interviews with 120 Israeli Druze, 60 middle-aged adults and 60 young adults, regarding values, views of the Druze community, and personal identity. All participants expressed commitment to and love for traditional Druze values of familial respect, respect for others, modesty in dress and behavior, and commitment to Druze beliefs about one, all-powerful God and the reincarnation of Druze souls within the Druze community. Because the Druze religion is secret, open for study only to those Druze who live according to the letter of the religious law, most Druze today are not religious, defining themselves as traditional. Education in Druze values, mostly in the family, is the extent of their religious education. Most participants expressed a need for there to be some religious concessions made by the sheiks who set and enforce religious policy, in order that more people may pursue higher education and work outside the village and also study the inner secrets of their religion. Without this the Druze religion may be in danger. Connection is drawn between the Druze and other traditional religious societies.

Posttraumatic recovery to distress symptoms ratio: a mediator of the links between gender, exposure to fire, economic condition, and three indices of resilience to fire disaster.

This study investigated the direct and indirect effects of demographic predictors on level of resilience following a potentially traumatic event. We hypothesized that the direct effects of three variables (exposure to fire hazards, gender, and economic condition) on resilience following a fire disaster would be mediated by the proportion of posttraumatic recovery to post-fire distress symptoms. The sample consisted of 234 Israeli Druze youth whose hometown was endangered and damaged by the Mount Carmel fire disaster in December 2010. Results partially supported the research hypotheses.

Whose Interview Is It, Anyway? Methodological and Ethical Challenges of Insider–Outsider Research, Multiple Languages, and Dual-Researcher Cooperation

This article focuses on the methodological challenges in one interview of the 60 in-depth interviews that comprise a research study of Israeli Druze currently underway. The study is being conducted by a pair of researchers, one a Canadian living in Israel, an English and Hebrew speaker, and one an Israeli Druze woman, a Hebrew and Arabic speaker. The interview examined here involves two interviewers, two interviewees, three languages and at least two cultural frameworks. The analysis treats the interview as an intrinsic case in order to expose the various contexts of the interview and how they affect the construction of meaning in this complex research situation.

P-976 - PTSD among three generations families in times of war: a comparison between israeli jews and arabs after the second lebanon war and cast lead operation

Background While the effects of war on individuals, age groups, and communities have been thoroughly studied, there has been relatively little mention in the literature regarding its differential effects on adult children and their parents and their elderly grandparents. Methods 509 participants, 167 elderly parents, 171 adult offspring and 171 adult grandchildren living in the northern and southern regions of Israel were interview after the Second Lebanon War (2006) and the Cast Lead Operation (2008). The participants were sampled by a cluster sampling. Findings Elderly parents experiences higher levels of PTSD symptoms than their adult children or their adult grandchildren do. Women experience higher levels PTSD symptoms than men and Israeli Arabs and Druze more then Israeli Jews in all three generations. Conclusions A policy should be enacted among the local authorities and the governmental offices that would ensure accessibility to and the ability to provide proper care especially for the elderly population during times of war or terror events. In addition, it is important to setup local teams in every local community, to deal with the level of mental and emotional preparedness of the home front and its inhabitants, in case the latter should again become part of the human casualties of the wars and terrorist events that occur in Israel.

“We Cannot Move Forward Unless We Preserve Our Traditions”: Women Principals as Leaders in Traditional Israeli Druze Society

Traditional societies around the world are at various points along a continuum from tradition to modernity, facing their own challenges and finding their own solutions and compromises. Among the changes in gender roles that occur with industrialization are a rise in the number of working women, a drop in fertility rates, a rise in literacy and educational levels among women, and increased participation by women in government and management, though women still have far less power than men. “The broad direction of value change is predictable” but the pace of change and the particular ways in which it plays out in the workplace, the family and religious institutions “is conditioned by the cultural legacy and institutional structure of any given society” (Inglehart & Norris, 2003: 10). We can enhance our understanding of these general processes by studying individual cases. Druze society in Israel offers such a case.