Dr. Omri Eilat

University of Haifa

Bio

Dr. Omri Eilat is a historian of the late Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. In the last three years, he has been working at the University of Haifa on the Republic of Turkey's maritime strategy and the Druze in the Ottoman Census. During his doctoral studies, he served as director of the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Association of Israel and later became director of the research institute at the Druze Heritage Center of Israel.

The Triumph of Genos over Ethnos: The Reshaping of Supranational Druze Identity and the Israeli-Druze Covenant

Abstract

This paper traces the Jewish-Druze covenant from the early Mandate period to the aftermath of October 7 and argues that it reflects the triumph of the genealogical component (genos) of Druze identity over the ethnic-national one (ethnos). Drawing on Ottoman registers and recent regional developments, it shows how the Israeli Druze became the first community from Islam's heterodox periphery to escape Islamic political hegemony—a model Israel now projects toward the Druze of Syria and beyond.