DRUZE ELDERS IN LINE AS ATTEND FUNERAL IN MAGDAL SHAMS`, 1999-06-09 (photo)

FOR RELEASE WITH FEATURE BC-ISRAEL-GOLAN-DRUZE - A group of Druze elders in traditional robes and flat hat topped with a white headdress sit along a wall during the funeral of a popular. The Golan Heights Druze are part of a secretive Islamic sect who live in Syria and Lebanon and parts of Israel. There are 19,000 Druze currently living on the Golan Heights - from a population of 130,000 that lived here prior to Israel capturing the plateau in the 1967 Six Day War. The Druze on the Golan Heights are fiercely pro-Syrian but maintain good relations with Israel, although with many charges of discrimination leveled at the Jewish state. The election of Ehud Barak as Prime Minister in israel has raised the Druze hopes for an israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights and a return to Syrian rule. JWH