People of Ghajar Speak Out

The village of Ghajar is located in the Golan on the border with Lebanon. Israel plans to build a wall that will divide the village to a northern part under Lebanese rule and a southern part under illegal Israeli occupation. The people of Ghajar have fiercely protested against the Israeli proposal and the result has been clashes between the natives and the Israeli authorities. In regards to this issue a resident of Ghajar said: "the issue for us is a matter of life or death. We are the guardians of this land and we will never give it up till the day of liberation...the people of Ghajar have lived here for 900 years, they are Syrian and there is documentation to prove that these lands belong to the province of Quniatera, Syria. Before the Israeli occupation we never felt that there was a border that separates us from our Lebanese neighbors, here you are in Syria and two meters away you will find yourself in Lebanon!"

62 Illegal Settler Families

After Israel finally withdrew from the Gaza Strip (although they still control access into and out of the strip and the air, sea and water resources), some settler families decided to move to another illegally occupied land, the Golan. Any settlement in the Golan, West Bank or ANY occupied territory is illegal under international law and violates the Geneva conventions but this is not new to zionism. These settlers deliberately chose to move from an illegal settlement in Gaza to another illegal settlement in the Golan. Will the Israeli government that is praised in the US as the the only democracy in Middle East do anything about this? Answer: not as long as it embraces zionism.

Apples and Snow: Two Symbols of Golan

Yes, it does snow in some parts of the Middle East, the Occupied Golan happens to be one of them. Earlier this year Syrians enjoyed these delicious Golan apples for the first time since 1967. Here is the story from BBC:


Syria to import Golan apples


Syria has announced that it will buy 10,000 tons of apples from Arab farmers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

It is the first time Syria has traded with Israeli-controlled territory. It usually observes an Arab League boycott of the Jewish state.

The decision came after farmers in the region had repeatedly called on the government to buy their produce, the Syrian foreign ministry said.

The ministry indicated that this would be a one-off transaction.

Explaining the decision, the ministry said in a statement that the apples were being imported "due to the harsh economic conditions which our brothers in the occupied Golan Heights are suffering from".

The apples were "grown on Syrian land and owned by Syrians," the statement said.

Another form of Israeli apartheid...

The natives of Golan frequently complain about mine fields in their backyards. Does the so-called democractic Israeli government do anything about this? Or is this part of their apartheid policy against Arabs?

Citizens of Golan stand in support of Syria

Hundreds occupied Golan citizens marched in protest of the current US threats against Syria. Of course they also called for the liberation of their own land as well.
In other unrelated news it was reported that the Syrian regime definitely forced them to demonstrate...sure.






For more pictures check:
http://www.jawlan.org/albums/05112005/album.asp

Free Our Golan

This blog is dedicated to the liberation of a forgotten occupied Arab land, the Golan Heights or Hadhabat Al-Jawlan. As a citizen of Syria, I have been prevented from visiting the Golan Heights because it was stolen from my country by the zionist military in 1967.
Among all occupied Arab lands, the Golan Heights has experienced the highest level of ethnic cleansing per capita. Before the Israeli aggression, it had a population of about 500,000 of those indiginous inhabitants only 17,000 remain today.
I hope that through this blog I can educate myself and others about the Golan issue and maybe one day the racist Israeli occupation will come to an end.