Lieberman! Golan is ONLY OURS!

 Once I published this article in the Syria Times, the paper-copy, and I repeat it here following the reckless hawkish statements by the foreign Minister of Israel, iberman , who crazily called for “settling the Israeli sovereignty in Golan heights in the framework of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and the events in Syria,” saying that “part of this comprehensive bargain has to cover an understanding between Israel, the international community and the US stating that Golan is part and parcel of Israel!

The unfulfilled will of my father deep ever lives in my conscience, heart, soul and mind. Dear to my heart his death will as to be buried in his native birthplace, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. My father’s last words, before cancer finished him were murmurs mingled with bitter tears in the loving memory of his 1967 lost village, Al-Qarana, five kilometers from Tiberias Lake. Indeed, this isn’t the wish of my father alone, but of all the Syrians, who were uprooted from their ancestors’ roots in the Golan Heights, in whose honor I named my daughter. Once I look at this very innocent young girl, I imagine and do see my father deep buried alive in my Golan. We have inherited not only their unfulfilled wills, wishes, unrealized dreams, desires, and ambitions; but their organic attachment to the land of the ancestors and their determination to return back HOME as long as hearts beat.

The Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights is an Arab Land since time immemorial. The Arameans inhabited the Golan Heights since the 2nd Millenium BC. The Arameans, whose capital was Damascus, established several kingdoms stretching to the southern part of Damascus and Yarmuk; then the Golan became part of the Assyrian and Chaldean. After that, the Golan came under the rule of the fifth Persian State during Kursh era; in the year 106 AD , the Golan was part of the Arab State during the Roman Age. By the end of the Nabateans kingdoms, Arab armies gathered at ‘ Al-Yaqousa’ village in the Golan Heights and defeated the Byzantines in the famous Al-Yarmuk Battle in the year 636. In 1118 the Crusaders occupied the Golan Heights save its fortified forts like ‘ Al-Ssibaya’ Fort near Banyas and ‘ Al-Hosson’ near Fiq village before Saladin Al-Ayoubbi liberated it in Hittin Battle near Tiberias. Afterwards, the Golan came under attacks by the Moguls, and then ruled by the Ottoman occupation, then the French occupation. On June 5, 1067, Israeli occupation forces occupied this dear part of Syria.

 On July 10, 2001, the late Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon in a visit to Katsarin settlement in the Golan Heights, called in provocative statements for the expansion of Jewish settlements in the Syrian Golan Heights as to turn ‘’ the settlements of the Golan to a reality that cannot be reversed,’’. He also claimed that “the Golan was part of the Israeli historic land, ‘’ archaeologists, even though the Israeli archaeological excavations works and surveys carried out in the Golan are illegal in contradiction with international laws and regulations, including Geneva Conventions, UN Charter and UNESCO regulations which ban excavation in occupied territories, have unearthed findings related to the Israeli existence and deep-rooted Jewish existence in this land!!! Sharon, warmonger, be sure; the only fact, which can never be reversed is the Syrian Arab Identity of our Golan. This very identity is internationally recognized by the world community and legitimacy through the tens of issued resolutions, especially 242, 338, 476, and 497 of the UN Security Council not to mention ten others by the General Assembly and other international organizations, fora and summits. You can never change the realities of geography and history; as long as the Sun rises from east as sets in west, the Golan is ours. You should very well know that the Syrian Golan Heights does have brave men as those of Hizbollah freedom fighters, who, heroically liberated the South. Before this provocation, Avigdor Liberman should have read the Torah well and considered some previous official Israeli statements including those of the extremist Rabbi, Ovadia Youssef, who described Arabs as snakes to be killed. Youssef, who once backed the then Israeli premier, Barak’s decision as to withdraw from the Syrian Heights, said ‘’ The Golan is a Syrian territory and will be returned to Syria in any settlement and we have to admit that and not waste time’’ ‘’ The Golan doesn’t form part of the land of Israel.’’. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak himself admitted on Feb.28th, 2000, as Israel Radio reported on this very day, that former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had deposited with the Americans a pledge of withdrawal from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights to June 4, 1967 border lines for security arrangements. Barak indicated that the US administration conveyed this pledge in due time to Syria. Even the Torah never mentioned any hints considering Sharon’s fabricated lies; the Torah spoke of the Arameans supremacy in defending Damascus against enemies citing the battle of AFiq,( Fiq) the Syrian village in the Golan, where Ben-hadad, the Aramean King heroically defended the capital Damascus‘’ Once the wrath of God intensified on Israel, He pushed them into the hands of Hazza’el, the King of Aram, and then to the hands of his son Ben-hadad,’’. Actually, this Israeli provocation was met by international uproar and condemnation. On July 11, France-the real France- criticized Sharon’s call for settlements expansion in the Syrian Golan Heights: ” The global peace we are seeking, founded on the pertinent UN Security Council resolutions and the principle of land for peace, supposes that the Golan will be returned to Syria,’’ said a French Foreign Ministry spokesman.

For his part, the then European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana criticized Sharon’s statements too ‘’ This will go in the wrong direction, no question about that,’’ adding ‘’ Sharon’s statement isn’t of the type of statement that will contribute to create a climate that is necessary now to move the process forward into peace,’’. Earlier on different occasions in protest against the Israeli settlements expansion, the UN, affiliated organs, and its Secretary General, Russia, and even the US criticized settlements expansion as an obstacle before peace resumption. The said Israeli statements would but reinforce Syrians’ pledge as to restore the Golan Heights recalling the late President Hafez Assad’s saying that we would make the Golan in the middle of Syria. If it was a matter of few meters as president Bashar said why don’t the Israelis withdraw from the Golan ‘in implementation for related international resolutions, and give us some few meters on the Western side of Tiberias; which is of course an occupied Arab piece of land.

Sharon’s hawkish and war mongering statements and practices on the ground disappointed even the Israelis of whom 70 percent have lost faith in your claims to bring them security according to the Gallup poll conducted recently for Maariv newspaper. Such statements and stances could never bring security but the opposite! Wars could never put an end for a single dispute along history. Step down, Sharon! Let peace loving forces have a say in the region affairs. You were given more than a chance to conclude the last chapter of your blood-tainted book differently; you have missed every single opportunity; a leopard can never change its skin. In the ongoing crisis in Syria, Israel foolishly is collaborating with the forces of darkness and ignorance which aim but at its destruction!

Dr. Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim