ABSTRACT
On October 2nd 1993, Shaykh Amīn , the undisputed Spiritual Leader of the Israeli Druze community, passed away. In his will, Shaykh Amīn nominated his cognatic grandson, Shaykh Muwaffaq , as his successor. This nomination brought about a severe split within the Druze community between traditionalists and intellectuals, the latter striving for the democratization of the process of electing the Spiritual Leader and other communal institutions. Justice M.Cheshin’s description of the situation is very much to the point: “The decease of a great leader leaves behind a big vacuum, and in the absence of an acknowledged and accepted successor, the vaccum is filled by an outpouring of overt and concealed powers and interests pushing in different directions,”1 The disputing parties resorted ten times to the High Court of Justice (HCJ) before a final decision was handed down in 1966.2 But the conflict is far from being resolved.3 The purpose of this paper is to analyse the Druze religious will as a political instrument, and more specifically in the case under review-as a tool to retain the position of the Spiritual Leader under the control of the powerful clan
The Legal Status of the Druze Community
The Druze have never been recognized as a religious community under Muslim rule due to the fact that the Druze religion, though originating from the Ismā‘īlīs, seceded completely from Islam. Furthermore, all their efforts to achieve a recognized status under the British Mandate in Palestine were unsuccessful. The Druze were finally recognized as a religious community in Israel on April 15, 1957, in accordance with the Religious Communities (Organization) (Druze Community) Regulations, 1957 (hereafter the 1957 Regulations), which were based on the Religious Communities (Organization) Ordinance of 1926 (the 1926 Ordinance). They were granted this status in recognition of their identification with the State and their acceptance of conscription into the army.4
