Al-Awda Valley(Valley of Return) is embodiment of humanitarian epic and historical struggle

Al-Awda Valley in the liberated area of the lands of Majdal Shams in the occupied Syrian Arab Golan is an embodiment of a humanitarian epic and a historical struggle that has refused division and stood in the face of the occupation, blocking its arrogance from one side and proving to the homeland its steadfastness from the other.

In the area overlooking the village of Majdal Shams in the occupied Syrian Golan, specifically in Ain Al-Tineh, the liberated part of it, SANA  met Dr. Samir Abu Saleh, one of the locals. He began his speech by referring to his family’s house located a few meters away, separating him from it is a barbed wire planted by the arrogant occupation that prevented him from contacting his family and from reaching the land that embraced his childhood and memories.

“On this land the fiercest battles took place and the Ottoman occupation soldiers and the French colonialists were defeated. Today history restores itself with the Israeli occupation. Its sons stand steadfast, rejecting all forms of occupation and affirming their adherence to their Syrian identity and national constants and their attachment to the land of their ancestors.

Majdal Shams is located in the far north of the occupied Syrian Arab Golan.   It is part of Quneitra Governorate, which lost about 1,200 square kilometers to the occupiers  in 1967 .

From Ain Al-Tineh point, nearly half of the village area can be seen clearly. It extends westward towards the village of Jabatha Al-Khashab, and its people depend on agriculture, as the occupation imposed an arbitrary division as described by Abu Saleh on families, homes and lands. So, Ain Al-Tina area turned into a small village with 30 houses.Most of their real owners are present in the occupied section, but their sons and relatives take care of it for them in the liberated section. Abu Saleh underlined the great interest attached by the Syrian state to providing all services for its reconstruction until the liberation of the occupied Syrian Golan.

Abu Saleh noted that the occupation tried to change the names that have national value with political and humanitarian dimensions,such as calling it the “Valley of Screams”, which is a misnomer, indicating that its real name is Wadi Al-Awda  as the return and liberation will be from it.

Abu Saleh clarified that this occupation, no matter how overbearing, and whatever the countries supporting it are, will surrender due to  the will of the people of the Golan, because their weapon is will according to a historical inevitability that leads to the demise of the occupation. Thus all labels fall in politics, while the real name remains depicting their   human right in this land.

The number of destroyed villages in the Golan reached 224 villages in addition to four large cities.Nearly 800,000 Syrian Arab citizens were displaced from the occupied Golan, according to Abu Saleh.

The bitter years of occupation did not extinguish  the hope of the sons of the Golan to return and liberate these lands and to cross these meters without mines or wires to visit their eternal capital, Damascus, and communicate with the families in the homeland. So their waiting and certainty are firm and are  renewed every morning due to their belief in the deep roots of the land and to their natural and legal legacy of it , according to Abu Saleh.

The road to victory is very costly according to Abu Saleh, but when we have a wise leadership and a strong army like the Syrian Arab Army that liberated all of the Syrian soil, then hope to achieve victory and return is apparent. When the region and other areas of Syria were exposed to terrorism, the people of the Golan expressed their desire to be with their brothers in the Syrian Arab Army to contribute to liberation, and many of them  made official requests to fight in Syria against terrorism supported by America and Israel.

Regarding the position of the international community, Abu Saleh indicated that the sons of the occupied Syrian Golan do not pay attention to the international legal issue because they are aware, through their experience with the occupation, that it doesn’t comply with any international resolution. The most prominent international decision that was issued in relation to the Golan was Resolution 497 that gave great hope to reduce the arrogance of the Israeli entity and to confirm that the Syrian Golan is an occupied land and that any measures taken by the occupation authorities in it are null and void. But they are also certain that the enemy will not respect the decision, so they have developed their struggle and resistance to defend their existence, livelihood and security.

Abu Saleh also shed light on the wind turbine project, which the occupation tried to implement under the pretext of generating electricity, but the people of the Golan realized its clear goal, which is to take the apple orchards and the large farms that constitute the most important and basic source in their livelihood , so they resisted it.

We left the place, but the image of the field did not leave our mind; half of it plowed  the other half grieving and left  unplowed, with mines in the middle, followed by a barbed wire. But all this did not affect the unity of the land and the people waiting for the day of liberation.

Inas Abdulkareem