Despite their practice of blending with dominant groups in order to avoid persecution and because the Druze religion doesn't endorse separatist sentiments, urging the Druze to blend with the communities they reside in, nevertheless the Druze have had a history of brave resistance to occupying powers, and they have at times enjoyed more freedom than most other groups living in the Levant.

Despite considerable congressional resistance, presidential and popular pressure led to a November 1993 agreement brokered by the Catholic Church between the administration and Congress.

Despite victories at Dupplin Moor and Halidon Hill, in the face of tough Scottish resistance led by Sir Andrew Murray, the son of Wallace's comrade in arms, successive attempts to secure Balliol on the throne failed.

Despite some insignificant resistance, especially at Durrës, Italy invaded Albania on 7 April 1939 and took control of the country, with the Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini proclaiming Italy's figurehead King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy as King of Albania.

Despite some stubborn resistance by some patriots, especially at Durrës, the Italians made short work of the Albanians.

Despite the arguments " in favor of an adaptive immune response in s-IBM, a purely autoimmune hypothesis for s-IBM is untenable because of the disease's resistance to most immunotherapy.

Despite the common belief that Edison did not use mathematics, analysis of his notebooks reveal that he was an astute user of mathematical analysis conducted by his assistants such as Francis Robbins Upton, for example, determining the critical parameters of his electric lighting system including lamp resistance by an analysis of Ohm's Law, Joule's Law and economics.

Despite the trappings of institutional change, the first years of independence saw more resistance than acceptance of the institutional changes required for democratic reform to take hold.

Despite their resistance to pro-slavery laws, several states made free blacks unwelcome.

Despite the inspired nonviolent resistance of the Czech and Slovak population, the reformers had little hope of holding out against Soviet pressure and ultimately were forced to accede to Soviet demands, signing the Moscow protocols.

Despite Finnish resistance, a peace treaty was signed in March 1940, wherein Finland ceded some key territory to the Soviet Union, including the Karelian Isthmus, containing Finland's second-largest city, Viipuri, and the critical defensive structure of the Mannerheim Line.

Despite the resistance of Danylo of Halych, Batu Khan managed to take two of his principal cities, Halych and Volodymyr-Volynskyi.

Despite its resistance, because of which the population of Xanthus was decimated, Lycia became part of the Persian Empire.

Despite being almost completely destroyed during an RAF bombing raid on 5 January 1945, the town of Royan wasn't liberated by the French resistance until April of the same year.

Despite this submission, resistance continued to erupt for several years.

Despite some resistance from American Indian tribes such as the Shawnee, in 1775 Boone blazed his Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachian Mountains from North Carolina and Tennessee into Kentucky.

Despite the fact that Sextus Pompeius was controlling Sicily and Domitius Ahenobarbus still commanded the republican fleet, the republican resistance had been definitively crushed at Philippi.

Despite their mission army of 14, 000, the Jesuits submitted without resistance.

'" Despite the initial resistance to the new music and quasi-psychedelic direction, My War would later be cited as a formative influence on grunge.

Despite these new fortifications, the Ommerschans was captured without any resistance when the Catholic bishops Bernhard von Galen of Münster and Maximilian Henry of Cologne invaded in 1672, the so-called rampjaar ( or disaster year ) that started the Franco-Dutch War.

Despite the initial opposition of some patriarchates and sees, over time the resistance dwindled away and ultimately Palamist doctrine became accepted throughout the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Despite this, resistance to the English led by William Wallace and Andrew Moray had emerged in the name of King John Balliol.

Despite their territorial gains following the Paris Peace Conference, the Greeks still hoped to achieve the Megali Idea and annex Constantinople and larger areas of Ottoman Asia Minor ; they therefore invaded Anatolia beyond Smyrna and sought to take Ankara, with the aim of destroying the Turkish resistance led by Mustafa Kemal ( later known as Atatürk ).

Despite fierce resistance in places, the Germans were forced back from the West Wall during February, and a series of Allied offensives, rolling from north to south, drove across the Rhineland towards the great river.

Despite the courageous resistance, the royal family were overwhelmed and decimated.

Despite Berger's report, Enver Pasha refuses to surrender his dream of a Turkish Blood Alliance ; ;

Despite a report by the Greater London Authority in support of continued use, the railway was closed in the early hours of 31 May 2003.

Despite this, Najibullah was not the only choice the Soviets had ; a GRU report claimed he was unfit to be leader considering the fact that he was a Pashtun nationalist, a stance which could decrease the regimes popularity even more.

Despite the work of the 1400 strong Iraq Survey Group in post-war Iraq, no evidence of actual WMD capability has so far been uncovered ; according to its final report in September 2004.

Despite the amendment lacking the weight of law, the conference report is constantly cited by the Discovery Institute and other ID supporters as providing federal sanction for intelligent design.

Despite these international conventions, organizations that monitor abuses of human rights ( e. g. Amnesty International, the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims ) report widespread use condoned by states in many regions of the world.

Despite calls for their abolition, the New Zealand Law Commission recommended their preservation in a 2001 report titled Subsidising Litigation.

Despite these problems, Price Waterhouse signed BCCI's 1989 annual report, largely due to Zayed's firm commitment to propping up the bank.

Despite CIA regulations, Ames did not report his romance with a foreign national to his superiors, even though some of his colleagues were well aware of it.

Despite that report, Lucas, who had little confidence in the operation as planned, failed to capitalise on the element of surprise by delaying his advance until he judged his position was sufficiently consolidated and his troops ready.

Despite this setback, which included a fitness report that stated " in an emergency he is liable to lose his head ", Arnold made a commitment to remain in the service, turning down an offer of the presidency of the soon-to-be operating Pan American Airways, which he had helped bring into being.

" Despite this report the artist made further efforts to recover his " farm.

Despite a report by Colonel James Wolfe that they would be able to capture Rochefort, Mordaunt was reluctant to attack.

Despite the opening of a Butlins holiday camp at Minehead in 1962 which brought some 30, 000 people to the town that year, the line was recommended for closure in the 1963 ' Reshaping of British Railways ' report.

Despite clearing most commissioners, the report stated that they had not found a single person showing the slightest sense of responsibility.

Despite this oral report, Harrelson's subsequent written report stated that Bello's 1967 testimony had been truthful, the polygraphist apparently unaware that in 1967 Bello testified that he had been on the street at the time of the shooting.

Despite acclaim for Oboler's dramas, NBC announced it was canceling the series in the summer of 1937 —" just to see whether listeners are still faithful to it ," according to one press report but also, it seems, to allow the hard-working author a vacation.

Despite knowing that Taylor's season was over in Week 3 of 2001, Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin listed him on the injury report as " questionable " every game for the remainder of the season, further fueling the doubts of Taylor's toughness in the minds of fans.

Despite the acceptance of its findings by the International Civil Aviation Organization, the report was rejected by the Mozambican and Soviet governments.

Despite a highly critical committee report, Hughes was cleared.

Despite these rulings and a similar, independent federal probation report by officer Tony Garoppolo into the culpability of the ferry service's upper management in which he ruled " the lion's share of culpability in this case as resting with the high level management of the Ferry Service ", no other employees of the New York City Department of Transportation were prosecuted.

Despite frequent calls for its release, the Henderson-Brooks report still remains classified.

Despite his committee releasing a report sceptical of hydraulic fracturing in the United Kingdom, Yeo has revised his personal opinion and supports the use of the technique in the UK.