BEIRUT: Lebanese Druze leaders Walid Jumblatt and Talal Arslan praised the Druze community in the Golan Heights and occupied Palestinian territories for constantly resisting Israel and hanging on to their Syrian and Arab identity.

Arslan, chief of the Lebanese Democratic Party, and Jumblatt, chief of the Progressive Socialist Party, made their remarks during a convention held in Damascus on Friday.

A delegation of Druze sheikhs from the Golan Heights and from the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948 participated in the convention, which aimed at uniting the Druze community in the Arab Levant and defending their identity. Lebanese Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi and Lebanese MP Fadi al-Awar were also present.

Coreligionists from Palestine arrived to Damascus through Jordan. A similar route was taken when a delegation of Druze Palestinians participated in a Druze diaspora conference in Lebanon in July.

Members of the Syrian Parliament also participated and Jumblatt thanked Syrian authorities for holding the convention, saying former late Syrian President Hafez Assad started the tradition of joining Arabs together.

He then addressed all Druze in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and praised their “historic stances facing occupation.”

Jumblatt also saluted “the people of Arab Palestine,” and underlined the importance of Arab national communication in facing Israel.

Arslan voiced joy at participating in the “historic gathering” and thanked Syrian President Bashar Assad for bringing Arabs together. He then praised the resistance of the Druze community in occupied Palestine and in the Golan Heights, saying “you have hung on to your Arab identity and you have rejected humiliation.”

He regretted, however, the “time of Arab deterioration, demonstrated by a policy of a methodical abandonment of patriotism and nationalism for the benefit of evil Zionists.”

Arslan continued to demand the launching of awareness campaigns to clarify the role of Druze Palestinians and Syrians in the Occupied Territories. “The percentage of Druze participating in what is called the Border Police does not exceed 0.49 percent … there are facts that Arabs and the world ignore,” he said.

He talked about media responsibility in the Arab world concerning the Occupied Territories, and described rejecting the Israeli nationality as “a source of pride and a superior act of resistance.”

“The epic story of Palestine and the Golan Heights uncovers false democracies that have accepted to protect racism and continuous criminality … Resistance is rewriting the modern history of mankind,” he added.

Arslan explained that the act of resistance was the same throughout the Arab world, but said Syria would always be “the fort of civilized Arabism.”

Sheikh Sakr Abu Saleh spoke on behalf of the Golan delegation and said truce with Israel was impossible, while Sheikh Ali Maadi represented the delegation of Palestinian Druze. The latter underlined the importance of the convention in terms of promoting nationalism, and hoped the spirit of Arab communication would spread from Syria to the entire Arab world.