GOLAN HEIGHTS: Torn between their yearning to return to their homeland Syria and their sole source of income, Israel, Syrian Druze in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights express mixed views over the Syrian uprising.

Record ID: 276269

  • Title: GOLAN HEIGHTS: Torn between their yearning to return to their homeland Syria and their sole source of income, Israel, Syrian Druze in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights express mixed views over the Syrian uprising.
  • Date: 28th June 2011
  • Summary: WOMAN SORTING CHERRIES
  • Embargoed: 13th July 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Syrian Arab Republic, Israel
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4PS5FY7JW6B5ZR95EQ8IXX2LQ
  • Story Text: Thousands of Palestinian demonstrators living in Syria slashed open the Israeli armistice line fence last month, shaking up the tranquil picturesque villages atop the Golan Heights plateau, occupied from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
    Thirty-five-year-old Kameel Khateer, a Syrian Durze resident of the Golan Heights border village of Majdal Shams situated on a hilltop overlooking swathes of cherry groves, had been helping pick the luscious fruit since the blossom season started in May, when the unexpected protest erupted near his house.
    Khateer, who was released from an Israeli prison in 2009 after eight years for what he called activities "resisting the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights," joined his fellow Syrian Druze villagers to watch dozens of Palestinians in Syria descend from a hilltop and breach the disputed border.
    Thirteen people were killed in those protests marking the "Nakba," the Palestinians term for the "catastrophe" of Israel's founding in 1948.
    Like the majority of residents of his village, Khateer supports the Palestinian cause, but accuses Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of allowing the Golan protests in a bid to divert international attention from his bloody suppression of the popular revolt against his authoritarian rule.
    "We feel every event and we feel for the people in Syria who are calling for freedom and democracy. The Syrian authorities have attempted to divert attention and to move the camera lenses to another location than the events in Syria, this is why they allowed the Palestinian youth and others from Arab countries to reach these fake borders," Khateer said during a break from picking cherries.
    Last's month border protests turned the Druze village into a flashpoint of violence after decades of a mostly peaceful frontier.
    Several residents of Majdal Shams were arrested over hurling stones at Israeli troops during the recent border violence.
    While the majority said they joined in the protest because they were suffering from ongoing discrimination and shared the same fate as Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, owners of stands at a local fruit market expressed grave concern over the deteriorating economic situation in the Golan Heights.
    Nooradien Bathish, who owns a fruit stand at the usually bustling marketplace, said prices have drastically dropped since the protests, mainly because Israel set roadblocks at the entrance to villages, scaring away prospective visitors and buyers.
    "It has affected me completely and as you can see all the prices dropped. There is no tourism, people are afraid to come to do their shopping here," Bathish said as he stood at his empty fruit stand awaiting potential customers.
    Shams Malek Abu Saleh, who also works at the local market, was among the protesters.
    "The affect on the economy that occurred was a result of the checkpoints that Israel had placed at the entrance to the Golan Heights which as a result led people not to come to the Golan Heights which made people, tourism and the like decline," he said.
    But Abu Saleh represents what has become in recent weeks a minority of Syrian Druze villagers that support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Despite rights groups saying 1,300 Syrian civilians have been killed since the outbreak of protests, Abu Saleh hailed the Syrian president as a leader who stood firmly against the west.
    "We have one authority in the Arab world that is standing strong and that is Syria, the authority of Doctor Bashar al-Assad. He is the man who has remained standing in face of the western conspiracies, he is the one who has sponsored the Palestinian, Lebanese and Iraqi resistance as well as all the Arab resistance," said Abu Saleh as a small crowd began to encircle him.
    But another salesman disagreed with Abu Saleh and said Assad will be held accountable for his actions.
    "If today he (Syrian President Bashar al-Assad) has weapons that he is using to destroy his people, this is a crime that he will be held accountable for one day, the authority will be held accountable," he said.
    The Golan Heights form a strategic plateau between Israel and Syria of about 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles). Israel captured it in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally.
    Some 20,000 Druze Muslims and about 18,000 Israeli settlers live there.
    Israel gave the Druze the option of citizenship though most rejected it.
    Syria tried to regain the Golan Heights in the 1973 Middle East war, but the assault was thwarted. Syria and Israel signed an armistice in 1974.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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