Pho to by Avi Machlis/JTA

Golan, Golan, Gone

Golan Heights residents
don't understand why the nation
seems indifferent to their fate.

NECHEMIAH MEYERS
Israel Correspondent

I

f the Golan is turned over to
Syria and I am forced to aban-
don my home in Kibbutz Ortal,
I will survive as a person, but
my belief in Zionism and the State of
Israel will die," says Yael Gal, a mem-
ber of the settlement almost since its
foundation 20 years ago.
She is among the handful of
18,000 Jews in the Golan Heights
who seem willing to accept that the
area will be returned to Syria in the
not-so-distant future as part of a
peace deal.
Work won't be a problem for the
trained psychologist and, should
financial assistance be required, her
parents will be willing and able to
assist the family.
But nothing can fill the spiritual
void for Mrs. Gal, her agronomist
husband Yoni and their three young
daughters should it be decided — as
the headlines blared again this week
— that the homes of the Jews _here,
let alone the region's strategic and
a
economic assets, are less important
than peace with Syrian strong-arm
dictator Hafez Assad.
Mrs. Gal, hoping to persuade the
many Israelis who now seem indiffer-
ent to her fate, has a message for her
countrymen: "Israel has no less right
to the Golan than it has to Jaffa,
Ramle and Beersheva. The only dif-
ference is 19 years.
"While we acquired the Golan in
1967, we have been in those other
places since 1948. A few hundred
meters from my parents' home in
north Tel Aviv, for example, is a huge
Arab ruin that was deserted during the

10/8
1999

30 Detroit Jewish News

Leah and Avishai Ravid and
their two boys in their gift shop in
Katzrin. The Ravids will quietly
leave the Golan if necessary.

War of Independence and which the
Palestinians now want back."
The only way Israeli leaders can reach
a reasonable settlement with the Arabs,
she adds, is by being wise and patient.
"But so far as I can see," she says, "the
only person around here who is wise
and patient is Assad." Likewise, her hus-
band sees no reason "to destroy every-
thing we have built up over the last 30
years. People who came here in their 20s
or 30s are now in their 50s and 60s.
Forcing them to leave would effectively
end their lives." The couple are typical
of Golan residents, Mr. Gal says.
Before Israelis became cynical, these
people were called "the salt of the
earth." Both were inculcated with the
pioneering spirit at an early age. They
were each born on kibbutzim
(although Yael grew up in Tel Aviv),
and strove to serve the needs of the
nation as soldiers or as civilians.
What differentiates the Gals from
many others on the Golan is their
willingness to discuss, however bitter-
ly, the possibility that Barak's govern-
ment will abandon the area.

So the bumper stickers declaring "The
Others, like Ortal Secretary Uri
nation is with the Golan," the rallies
Heitner, refuse to even talk about the
and the other campaigns are coming
matter.
back.
He is certain that if the issue is decid-
And Israel prepares for a renewed
ed in a referendum, as has been
debate on the lush region that for
promised by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
many has become a natural part of
Barak, a majority of Israelis will vote
the country. 1-1
against a withdrawal.
It is hard to see a
justification for such
optimism. After all, the
fate of the Third Way
Israeli forces captured the Golan Heights, in the
political party, whose
country's northeast corner, from Syria during the
principle issue was to
1967 Six-Day War.
maintain the Golan
Syrian gunners had been intensifying shelling
Heights, is one indica-
of Israeli farmers and others from the Heights in
tion. In the 1996 elec-
the previous months.
tions, its first, it cap-
In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Syrian forces
tured four seats. In this
initially
recaptured most of the region, but Israeli
spring's election it
troops,
after
vicious battles, retook the area.
failed to win even one.
Israeli troops pressed further into Syria, but
But that is not dis-
eventually withdrew to the 1967 armistice line.
suading Heitner and
Syria demands a full return of the Golan
his colleagues. They
Heights prior to any peace treaty with Israel.
are now making efforts
Since 1992, every Israeli government has openly
to sway public opinion
or secretly negotiated with Syria.
in preparation for a
possible referendum.

Golan Primer