Syria’s “State of Bashan” Swears in First Infantry Recruits
The first intake of the “State of Bashan” infantry brigade held its swearing in ceremony, with soldiers pledging to defend their small homeland.
Footage shared by the King of the Neighborhood Telegram channel shows the uniformed recruits, rifles slung over their shoulders, raising their arms as they take the oath.
A small homeland called Bashan
Bashan is a biblical name. In the Hebrew Bible it describes the fertile highlands east of the Jordan River, a region that today spans southern Syria and the Golan Heights.
The name has returned in recent months in the Druze majority region of Suwayda in southern Syria. In October 2025, Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al Hijri renamed the area known as Jabal al Arab “Jabal Bashan,” a choice that drew attention because of its Hebrew roots. For the recruits who took the oath, Bashan is the homeland they have sworn to defend.
Why southern Syria’s Druze look to Israel
The Druze of Suwayda came under deadly attack in July 2025, when fighting between Druze, Bedouin tribal fighters and Syrian government forces killed hundreds of people. As the violence spread, al Hijri appealed to world leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for protection.
Israel responded with airstrikes on Syrian government forces and on military headquarters in Damascus, following protests by Israel’s own Druze community, whose members serve in the IDF. In November 2025, Netanyahu pledged to protect “the Druze allies in Jabal al Druze.”
Israel has also demanded the demilitarization of southern Syria, including Quneitra, Daraa and Suwayda, near its border. For a small community surrounded by larger and often hostile forces, that stance has made Israel the neighbor it hopes will stand behind it.
A salute common in Arab armies
The recruits used a raised arm salute, a gesture used in most Arab military ceremonies, including in Ahmed al Sharaa’s Syria.
Al Sharaa, the former leader of the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al Sham, took power in Damascus after the fall of Bashar al Assad in December 2024. Raised arm oaths remain a familiar sight at Syrian military ceremonies under his rule, as they were for decades before.
A gesture with a different meaning for Jewish viewers
For many Jewish viewers, however, it evokes Nazism, an association the soldiers may not recognize as they seek Israeli support and protection.
For Jews, the stiff armed salute is inseparable from Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, and it remains banned in Germany today. In the region, the same movement carries a long military tradition. That gap is what makes an oath of loyalty in southern Syria look so different on screens in Israel.
