The important thing to remember about the Golan Heights is that while Israel considers it to be part of the country, acquired from Syria during the Six Day War in 1967, the rest of the world calls it an Occupied Territory. Our guide told us that there's some hush hush negotiations where Israel has agreed to give Jordan a southern piece of Israel the size of the Golan Heights, Jordan will give Syria a same sized piece of land, and Israel can keep the Golan. Everyone thinks it's a great plan aside from Syria who really just wants the Golan back.
So, the tiyul:
We started, per usual, with an early 5:15 am loading on to the bus. After driving a couple hours, we arrived at Nachal Zavitan (Zavitan river) where we stopped at a national park for breakfast (that we brought with us). We then had a 3 hour "hike" which was really more like a nature walk. Unfortunately, it was 41 degrees Celsius, or about 106 Fahrenheit. It would have be absolutely miserable if we didn't get to swim in some natural springs along the way. I found it difficult to walk by the remains of buildings that looked more like piles of stones. I took photos of the few buildings that still had walls, but mostly we just saw the first layer of stones, outlining where walls once were. These are all that is left of the Syrian houses after the Israeli Army finished. Again, remember that this war took place in 1967 - so it's not like Roman ruins. It's purposeful demolition.
This just in from my mom after reading my post:
"BTW - I think that the houses that you saw were the remains of Syrian army camps."
15 minutes later:
"I take it back.
I read http://www.haaretz.co.il/
seems like there were many Syrian villages that were purposely demolished, as you said Mich. And if I remember otherwise it's probably another thing to attribute to the Israeli propaganda of the post 6 days war."
Please excuse the following rough translation that she sent me, as it's a google translate.
Before the war lived in the Golan Heights about 150 thousand civilians, 130 thousand of them in the occupied by Israel. About two months after the war, only 7,400 were counted, all Druze residents of five villages, out of 223 localities were Syrian Golan before the war. Israel Lands Administration in cooperation with the JNF systematically demolished the abandoned villages, having surveyed by archaeologists to make sure there are no findings that matter. A few months after the war, the IDF destroyed the Druze village Ashiitah, because of its proximity to the new line, residents were required to pass the other Druze villages.
We then drove about an hour to Har Bental. It's an old military bunker on the border of Syria, so it offers a great view of the Golan and Syria, as well as being historically significant in it's role during the Six Day War.
Another hour drive later, and we found ourselves at Hamat Gader, ancient Roman hot springs. There were hot sulfur pools, which we spent some time in for the novelty of it, despite the heat. Also, the main pool is actually a pool now, with no resemblance to the spring from which the water came from, and they put in jacuzzi seats around the edges - so that was sweet. After a quick 5-10 minute dip there, we moved on to the regular pool which had a sweet water slide (but sadly, no photos).
And then another 2 hour drive back to the kibbutz and a GREAT sleep. Long days are exhausting :-P
No comments:
Post a Comment