“This is not just my opinion,” Swaid continued. “I have met with many Druze representatives and everyone is against the plan.” (Kara, for his part, expressed puzzlement over the objections.) Furthermore, Swaid added, the location of the new community is far from existing Druze towns and ignores established communities in desperate need of development — a fact that tends to be explained away by their proximity to existing nature reserves, hence limiting expansion opportunities.