42nd Anniversary of Comprehensive strike in occupied Syrian Golan

On December 14th, 1981, the Israeli occupation entity illegally decided to annex the occupied Syrian Golan and impose its laws on the Golanese. Three days later, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution No. 497 that categorically considers the Israeli decision as null and void and of no legal effect and confirms the Syrian Arab identity of the Golan.

The annexation decision received strong rejection by Golan’s people, whose anger over this provocative behavior was culminated by announcing a comprehensive strike on February 14th, 1982. This date was a turning point in the struggle of the Syrian people against the occupation, which indeed has not stopped since Israel attacked and occupied the Golan in 1967.

Every year, on February 14th, people in the occupied Golan insist on commemorating the comprehensive strike anniversary by gathering in the occupied villages’ squares to confirm again and again that they accept no alternative to the Syrian Arab identity and to stress their determination to resist the occupation’s measures and schemes until the Golan is back to Syria. This year, the Golanese organized a general strike in the Majdal Shams, Beq’ata, Mas’adah and Ein Qinieh that covered all walks of life. Schools and shops were closed and the squares of the occupied villages were decorated with the Syrian flag.

Once the comprehensive strike was announced in Golan in 1982, the occupation besieged the villages and towns of Golan, imposed a curfew, prevented food materials from reaching the besieged areas and cut off electricity in an attempt to cover up what was happening. The occupation also carried out wide-scale raids, broke into the houses and detained tens of citizens in an attempt to force the people to end the strike.

However, the people in Golan faced the siege, resisted the occupation forces and engaged in fierce clashes with them, the fiercest of which was the battle for identity on April 1st, 1982 when the occupation forces stormed into the villages of the Golan and attacked the people with the aim of subjugating them, but the occupation was forced, 6 months after the strike, to comply with the demands of people in Golan and reverse its racist scheme of imposing the Israeli identity on the people in Golan.

Today, 57 years after the occupation, the people in occupied Golan continue with their resistance of the Israeli aggressive and judaization schemes. Last June, the people in Golan foiled the Israeli occupation’s settlement scheme to establish wind turbines on their farmlands in Al-Hafayer area, east of Mas’adeh village. The true goal of this scheme was to seize the land of the village, displace the residents and replace them with settlers.

The comprehensive strike anniversary comes this year as the entire region is experiencing extraordinary circumstances due to the current Israeli war of genocide against the people in Gaza Strip.

Syria always affirms that Golan is an integral part of its territory and that it will not give up an inch of it. It also stresses that it will spare no effort to restore its occupied land by all internationally-guaranteed means as this is an eternal Syrian right confirmed by international resolutions.

Hamda Mustafa