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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Golan; adhering to Syrian identity, resisting 'Israelization' attempts</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Ahmad Karakira</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">August 2, 2024<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><p>From
armed Resistance to nonviolent strikes, the residents of the occupied
Syrian Golan Heights have foiled Israeli conspiracies and confirmed
their Syrian Arab identity.</p><img src="cid:ii_lzcws83s1" alt="17cf3475-a6c2-4788-bbfb-4fbee6f3178b.png" width="423" height="360"><br><div><ul id="gmail-content-slick-0"><div aria-hidden="false"><li>
Golan; adhering to Syrian identity resisting 'Israelization' attempts
</li></div></ul>
<p>The Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights made headlines on Saturday
after a missile landed on a football field in the Druze town of Majdal
Shams, killing 12 people and injuring dozens.</p>
<p>"Israel" was quick to pin the blame on Hezbollah and claimed that the Lebanese group targeted the town with an "Iranian rocket".</p>
<p>Playing the role of the "hero", Israeli occupation Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu also vowed that "Israel will not let this murderous
attack go unanswered and Hezbollah will pay a heavy price for it, a
price it has not paid before," according to a statement from his office.</p>
<p><a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah-denies-responsibility-for-majdal-shams-strike">Hezbollah denied</a>
that it targeted Majdal Shams, a town where many residents have
rejected Israeli nationality since the Israeli occupation of the Golan
Heights in 1967.</p>
<p>In a statement, the Lebanese Resistance group said it "categorically
denies the allegations reported by certain enemy media and various media
platforms concerning the targeting of Majdal Shams."</p>
<p>"The Islamic Resistance has no connection to this incident," it affirmed.</p>
<p>Later, <em>Axios</em> cited an American official as saying that Hezbollah officials told the UN that the Golan Heights incident was the result of <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah-told-un--israel--was-behind-golan-strike-as-us-war">an Israeli interceptor missile</a> hitting the playground in Majdal Shams, the largest town in the Golan.</p>
<p>Moreover, reporters of several media outlets cited some anonymous
eyewitnesses as saying they saw an interceptor missile falling on the
field but noted that they refused to speak in front of the camera out of
fear of retaliation from Israeli authorities.</p>
<p>A couple of days later, Israeli occupation forces launched an
aggression on Beirut's southern suburbs, resulting in the assassination
of Hezbollah's top military leader <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah-announces-martyrdom-of-cmdr--fouad-shokor--sayyed">Sayyed Fouad Shokor</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/you-will-shed-tears--we-entered-a-new-phase--nasrallah-to-is">In a speech</a>
delivered at a large funeral ceremony held for Shokor, Hezbollah
Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the Israeli regime tried
to label its aggression on Beirut as a "response" to the incident in
Majdal Shams.</p>
<p>He reiterated that the Resistance has rejected this accusation and
denied responsibility after a thorough investigation, adding that "we
have the courage to take responsibility if it was our attack, even if it
was a mistake, and we have precedents in this matter."</p>
<p>Sayyed Nasrallah pointed out that "Israel cannot accept the
hypothesis that the incident in Majdal Shams was due to an Israeli
interceptor missile" despite the massive evidence suggesting it, which
was even put forward by numerous military experts.</p>
<p>He affirmed that "the aim of accusing the Resistance is to incite
sectarian strife between the [Druze] people of the occupied Golan and
[Hezbollah] and behind it the Shiite sect, in order to undermine the
most significant achievements of Al-Aqsa Flood" of unity and solidarity
among Arabs and the people of the region.</p>
<p>The Hezbollah chief confirmed that this strife was quelled and
disabled "thanks to the awareness and firm positions of the leaders of
the Druze community," extending his gratitude to the political and
spiritual leaders of the Druze for their stance.</p>
<p>The town held Saturday a funeral ceremony for the victims of the attack, with the Israeli <em>Channel 13</em>
reporting that residents of Majdal Shams attacked members of Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party who showed up for the
ceremony.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Israeli news website <em>Walla</em> mentioned that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/majdal-shams-residents-mourn-martyrs--reject-any-israeli-pre">met with rejection</a> and protests upon his arrival in the town. </p>
<p>"Get out of here. We don't want you here, you killer," the residents
told Smotrich, accusing the Israeli minister of making use of their
children's blood.</p>
<p><strong>Al Mayadeen</strong>'s correspondent Hanaa Mahameed visited
the site where the projectile landed and gathered testimonies from the
town's residents, who challenged the Israeli narrative that Hezbollah
was behind the attack.</p>
<p>The <em>Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)</em> also reported that the
residents of Majdal Shams attempted to kick out Netanyahu from the town,
calling him a "fascist" and a "criminal".</p>
<p>Netanyahu had arrived in Majdal Shams alongside a convoy of high-ranking security officials. </p>
<p><strong>Al Mayadeen</strong>'s correspondent in the occupied
territories reported that Netanyahu arrived in Majdal Shams at around
2:00 pm (local time) and was received by the town's Israeli-appointed
council chief in an administrative building. Netanyahu entered through
the back door of the building to avoid being seen. </p>
<p>After news had gotten around to the town's residents, hundreds
gathered outside the said building, protesting Netanyahu's visit to the
occupied Syrian town. </p>
<p>The demonstrators berated the Israeli prime minister, denouncing him as a "child killer" and a "criminal".</p>
<p>Netanyuahu's visit to the town did not last for more than 15 minutes, locals told <strong>Al Mayadeen</strong>, after the incident had enraged residents who refused to receive the Israeli prime minister. </p>
<p><strong>Al Mayadeen</strong> also found that several locals refused
to allow Israeli occupation forces to use their homes and rooftops as
guarding points ahead of Netanyahu's arrival.</p>
<p>It is noteworthy that, to this day, the vast majority of Majdal
Shams' residents maintain their Syrian identity, with only about 20%
having accepted Israeli citizenship.</p>
<p>Israeli media previously reported that in 2018, only 272 people out
of a population of about 12,000 voted in local elections held by the
Israeli occupation authorities.</p>
<h2>Illegal Israeli occupation of Syrian Golan Heights</h2>
<p>To better understand the current situation in the Golan Heights
following the Majdal Shams incident, it is only crucial to look back at
the history of this region since its occupation by "Israel".</p>
<p>In the 1967 war, known as the Six-Day War, between the Arab and
Israeli forces, the latter managed to occupy the Gaza Strip, West Bank,
al-Quds, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights.</p>
<p>The Golan spans an area of 1,860 square kilometers, accounting for 1%
of Syria's total land area. During the June 1967 war, "Israel" occupied
approximately 1,250 square kilometers of this territory, of which Syria
regained 100 square kilometers following the October 1973 war.</p>
<p>Israeli occupation forces displaced over 95% of the Golan's
population—around 140,000 Syrian citizens—and demolished their villages,
totaling 340 villages and the city of Quneitra.</p>
<p>As part of its settler colonial project, "Israel" has gradually
established 33 agricultural settlements and the city of Katzrin on the
ruins of Syrian villages, with a settler population of at least 26,000.
They also planted 76 minefields containing approximately two million
mines, some within and around inhabited villages.</p>
<p>Currently, "Israel" occupies about 1,176 square kilometers of the
Golan Heights, including 100 square kilometers of demilitarized zones as
per a 1949 Armistice Agreement.</p>
<p>There are five villages in the occupied Golan Heights: Majdal Shams,
Mas'ada, Buq'ata, Ein Qiniya, and Ghajar. About 10% of the residents of
the five villages work in the agricultural sector, utilizing only about
21,000 dunams for farming compared to 110,000 dunams used by Israeli
settlers, according to local data.</p>
<p>The people of Golan have cultivated the region for decades, if not
centuries, and are renowned for their olives and fruits, particularly
apples. However, the limited use of water does not meet local irrigation
needs, with farmers receiving approximately five million cubic
millimeters of water annually, affecting the quantity of their
agricultural production.</p>
<p>According to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination, expanding Israeli settlements and their activities have
limited Syrian farmers' access to water through discriminatory pricing
and fees.</p>
<p>Some of the main water sources in the Golan have been seized for
exclusive use by settlers, and other water sources are partially
diverted for use in "Israel", according to a study by researcher Scott
Kennedy titled "The Druze of the Golan: A Case of Non-Violent
Resistance."</p>
<p>Central Golan is also known as one of the richest areas in livestock,
but this sector has disappeared from the local economy due to the
Israeli occupation's usurping of grazing lands. </p>
<p>In a move reflecting its savage nature, in 1981, the Israeli
government officially "annexed" the Golan Heights through the "Golan
Heights Law" passed by the Knesset, violating international resolutions
that deemed the decision "null, void, and without international legal
effect," a stance reaffirmed by the United Nations on November 28, 2023.</p>
<p>Despite the UN and the international community not recognizing the
"annexation" of these territories and international law considering the
33 Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights illegal, "Israel" has
desperately sought recognition of its step, finally receiving it in 2019
by then-US President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Subsequently, a new settlement was established in the occupied Golan Heights named after Trump.</p>
<p>Even after Joe Biden assumed office in 2020, his administration did
not reverse the decision and has referred to the region as "northern
Israel" rather than occupied Syrian territory.</p>
<p>In the same context, on December 26, 2021, the Israeli government,
led then by Naftali Bennett, approved a plan to double the Jewish
population in the Golan by 2030, with an initial budget of one billion
dollars aimed at attracting 23,000 settlers to the area.</p>
<h2>Golan residents refuse Israeli citizenship, affirm Syrian identity </h2>
<p>The void Israeli decisions did not prevent the residents of the
occupied territory from asserting their right to self-determination,
where more than 90% of the Golan Heights residents rejected Israeli
"citizenship" in 1981.</p>
<p>Jonathan Kuttab, a Palestinian attorney and human rights activist,
recalled in an interview in 1983 that "those who accepted Israeli
identity cards were often shunned by the entire community."</p>
<p>"They decided that anyone who accepts Israeli identity cards is
really cutting themselves off from the community 'They are no longer one
of us, no longer a Druze,'" he says.</p>
<p>In his study, <em>The Druze of the Golan: A Case of Non-Violent Resistance</em>, Scott Kennedy also detailed the matter, writing:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"A harsh reception greeted those who took Israeli identification: few
would speak to them or enter their homes; they were not invited to
community events, weddings or funerals; and they were not welcomed to
religious gatherings. Their dead were denied the community's prayers.
Such tremendous social pressure was exerted on them that all but a few
diehard quislings returned their cards. Those who repented were required
to recant publicly, or to go door-to-door to apologize to their
neighbors, and to contribute money to support the families of those
imprisoned."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>According to Kuttab, after the Israeli Knesset passed a law
authorizing the "annexation" of the Golan, the region's residents
appealed to the Israeli government and petitioned for a reversal of the
decision, which would entail forcing Israeli citizenship on them. When
their demands were rejected, they announced that they would not comply
with the occupation authorities' measures.</p>
<p>"Israel can do whatever it wants to us: they can confiscate our land.
They can kill us. But they cannot tell us who we are. They cannot
change our identity," Kuttab cited Golan villagers as saying.</p>
<p>Following the "annexation" decision, Golan residents launched a
heroic nonviolent Resistance in an attempt to defy Israeli diktats.</p>
<p>Detailing these steps, Kennedy indicated that the laborers' refusal
to work disrupted industry in northern occupied Palestine for several
weeks, and the elderly and young defied Israeli-imposed curfews to
harvest crops.</p>
<p>Groups of women confronted Israeli soldiers, seizing at least 16
weapons and handing them over to army officers, demanding the withdrawal
of troops. The weapons were sometimes exchanged for the release of
detainees.</p>
<p>One village, taking advantage of the strike, completed a major sewer
project that had been denied funding and permits by Israeli authorities
for years. The strike also saw trenches dug and pipelines installed.</p>
<p>Villagers began developing cooperative economic structures, such as
community-wide tree spraying with the understanding that the crops would
be shared by all. They also started establishing their own schools.</p>
<p>After four months, Israeli authorities indicated that efforts to
force Golan residents to accept Israeli "citizenship" would be
suspended. The residents were led to believe that, on April 1, 1982, the
Israeli efforts to impose "citizenship" on them would cease, only for
"Israel" to further escalate its repressive measures against the people
of the Golan.</p>
<p>Amid a media blackout, an estimated 14,000-15,000 Israeli soldiers
raided the region and imposed a 43-day siege, cutting off electricity
and water to the villages and destroying several homes.</p>
<p>In one demonstration, nine people were injured, and at least two died
as ambulance services to nearby hospitals were blocked. At least 150
people were detained daily, with fourteen receiving four-to-five-month
sentences and most fined for not having Israeli identification.</p>
<p>During the siege, Israeli troops conducted door-to-door raids,
seizing Syrian-era identification papers and replacing them with Israeli
IDs. The following morning, the town squares of various Golan villages
were littered with discarded Israeli identity cards, a sign of the
resident's firm refusal of Israeli identification, even if it means that
they have to endure direct threats of personal harm and communal
suppression.</p>
<p>As a result of the residents' fierce resistance and adherence to
their land and Syrian Arab identity, the Israeli government eventually
lifted the siege, withdrawing troops, removing checkpoints, and leaving
the Golan residents alone.</p>
<p>But today, most Golan residents unwillingly hold Israeli ID cards,
where their status is described as residents and non-citizens, primarily
to travel to their workplaces. Their situation is similar to that of
the residents of the eastern part of occupied al-Quds who have refused
Israeli "citizenship".</p>
<p>Israeli media highlight that the residents of the occupied Golan
Heights have maintained close ties with homeland Syria even after
"Israel" occupied the area in 1967 and "annexed" it in 1981, which
proves that the occupation has failed to isolate and detach the Golan
from its true Arab identity and surroundings.</p>
<p>Amid the Israeli restrictions imposed on the movement of residents in
the occupied Golan Heights, the region's citizens still head to a hill
that separates Majdal Shams from the liberated part of Syria and use
loudspeakers to communicate with their separated relatives during
weekends and holidays to exchange greetings, well-wishes, and
conversations, which led to the site being named "The Shouting Hill."</p>
<p>According to Israeli figures, among the 21,000 Druze living in the
Golan, only 4,300 are considered Israelis, including some who inherited
their "legal status" from parents who previously accepted citizenship,
while the vast majority identify as Syrian.</p>
<p>The aforementioned historical details are evidence that the residents
of the occupied Golan Heights have historically resisted Israeli laws
aimed at their "Israelization". Now, it seems that "Israel" is using the
Majdal Shams incident as a pretext to further tighten its occupation of
the Golan and detach its people from their Syrian Arab identity.</p>
<p></p>
<h2>Armed Resistance</h2>
<p>Regarding armed Resistance, Eduardo Aboultaif's study traced the
history of the military Resistance against Israeli occupation in the
Golan Heights.</p>
<p>The study, based on interviews with Resistance members, indicated
that a group of about 50 young men from the Golan formed a secret
Resistance movement immediately after the Israeli occupation of the
region.</p>
<p>According to one of the founding members, the group's aim was to
provide intelligence to the Syrian army, motivated purely by its
members' patriotism, without any religious, familial, tribal, or
sectarian affiliations.</p>
<p>The main activity of this Resistance network, which comprised three
operational cells, was gathering intelligence and establishing
communication with the Syrian army.</p>
<p>A group of 12 young men also escalated their military Resistance by
planting mines near Israeli military sites in the Golan, culminating in a
successful attack on an Israeli tank ammunition depot containing 1,200
rockets.</p>
<p>Following the discovery of the Resistance cell, some members were
sentenced to 25-32 years in Israeli prisons and two were killed at the
hands of Israeli occupation forces.</p>
<p><strong>Read more: <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/did-an-israeli-iron-dome-missile-cause-the-majdal-shams-mass">Did an Israeli Iron Dome missile cause the Majdal Shams massacre?</a></strong></p></div></div></div>
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