SYRIA / GOLAN HEIGHTS: Syrian independence day marked by celebrations in Damascus and protests in the Golan Heights

Record ID: 278682

  • Title: SYRIA / GOLAN HEIGHTS: Syrian independence day marked by celebrations in Damascus and protests in the Golan Heights
  • Date: 18th April 2008
  • Summary: CHILDREN SITTING ON STATUE OF ARAB RESISTANCE FIGHTERS WAVING SYRIAN FLAG/ RESIDENT CLAPPING AND CHANTING
  • Embargoed: 3rd May 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA3DPOHI8IMAOW6RPJMME70E8OR
  • Story Text: While Syrians in Damascus celebrated their 62nd national independence day with a parade of some 200 Arabian horses, residents of the Golan Heights turned their celebrations into a protest against Israeli occupation.
    In the Syrian capital, some 200 horsemen wearing traditional Arab riding clothes and paraded the Arabian horses around the main streets and squares of the city.
    In the Druze Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams, some 200 residents marched through town chanting Syrian nationalist and anti-Israeli slogans.

    "We are protesting against the Israeli occupation. We demand an immediate end to this occupation, especially given the oppressive practises of the Israeli occupation against the residents of the Golan Heights,"
    resident Wahib Saleh told Reuters.
    The protesters carried posters of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his late father former president Hafez al-Assad and waved Syrian flags.
    Women and children showered the men with rice as they marched by in support of the demonstration.

    "Today's protest is to celebrate our independence day, when French colonial rule of Arab Syria ended. We hope that in the future the Zionist colonisation of the Golan and all other Arab lands will cease as well,"
    said Morai Hamoud, another resident.
    On a hilltop at the edge of the town, they waved and shouted to friends and relatives across the armistice line who had also congregated to celebrate.
    Israel seized the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it 1981 despite international criticism.
    There are currently an esteemed 20,000 Israeli settlers sharing the rocky plateau with 20,000 Syrians -- mainly of Druze denomination.
    Syrian Independence Day marks the day the country became free of French occupation in 1946 after 25 years of occupation.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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