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On the Jesus Boat
Wooden boats on Galilee sea ..
View from the zimmer
A view of the KinneretMas'ada
A Druze village located in the Golan area...not as interesting as Majdal Shams (which is a town we drove through, located right along the border with Syria, from which Druze relatives living in the Israeli side "shout" across the border fence to relatives living on the Syrian side. I wanted to see this for myself but we didn't have enough time to spend there and at the time we went, we weren't exactly sure where the "Shouting Hill" is, and as it was getting dark and we were hungry, we turned around and headed for a druze restaurant in Mas'ada that we'd heard about).
Close to 10% of the non-Jewish population of Israel is Druze. Most of the Druze live in Lebanon and Syria, and in the case of Israel, in the northern areas of the Golan (they have no homeland or language of their own, and are largely defined by their mysterious religion which is a curious combination of Islam with some aspects of Christianity and Judaism. Conversion to Druze is not permitted and outsiders know relatively little about this mysterious sect which has religious exemption from Israeli military service but half of whom willingly participate in the IDF and have taken Israeli citizenship). To the Westerner, a Druze may look like an Arab, with the exception that Druze men (the elders) usually sport thick mustaches and wear distinctive robes and turbans.
The Druze, although insular and secretive about their religion, are some of the friendliest people in the Middle East.
