First elections for Druze in Israeli Golan divide community

Druze residents in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights will for the first time join millions of Israelis voting in local elections next week.

But candidates have had to keep a low profile amid a call by some Druze – who are members of a secretive offshoot of Islam – to boycott the polls, exposing a deep rift in the community over identity and the future of the occupied territory.

The chasm has pitted community elders who pledge fealty to Syria and activists opposed to Israel's occupation against those with looser ties to their ancestral homeland who seek to have a stake in how their own communities are managed.

Israel occupied the Golan Heights in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the territory in 1981 – a move that is not internationally recognised.    (AP)