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Israel's Druze attend congress in Lebanon

BEIRUT — A delegation of 35 Israeli-Arab Druze was accorded special permission to travel to Lebanon to attend an international congress for the highly secretive community, Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said on Wednesday.

"I worked with the Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese authorities so that the delegation would be allowed to travel by land and enter Lebanon for the first such congress being held for the Druze," Jumblatt told AFP.

Lebanon and Syria are technically still at war with Israel and as such forbid anyone carrying an Israeli passport or any other passport bearing an Israeli stamp from entering their borders.

Jumblatt said that each member of the Israeli-Arab Druze delegation was given a laissez-passer and travelled through Jordan and Syria before entering Lebanon for the congress which began on Tuesday and ends Thursday.

"The aim of this congress is to reaffirm the Arab and Muslim identity of the Druze," said Jumblatt, who will be hosting a luncheon on Saturday for all the delegates at his ancestral home in Lebanon's Shouf mountains, southeast of Beirut.

Attending the congress are 840 delegates from 37 countries, including the United States, Argentina, Sweden, Ukraine and Australia, organisers told AFP.

According to unofficial estimates there are around 250,000 Druze in Lebanon, a country of four million, around 150,000 in Israel and half a million in Syria.

The Druze are an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Little is known about their religion which is extremely secretive.

Traditional Druze are recognizable by their white knit caps, handle-bar moustaches and black sherwals, or baggy trousers. Traditional Druze women wear long black dresses and white headscarves.