Golan resources and the Israeli greed
“Israel”, since its occupation of the Syrian Golan in June 1967, has never stopped stealing the resources of this area to serve its expansionist schemes. As if capturing Golan land, displacing its population and putting hand on its rich water resources were not enough to satisfy the occupation’s greedy aspirations, as it wanted more and more of Golan’s resources, including its oil, its air and even its antiquities. All these theft crimes have been committed in daylight and under the sight of the international community who has done nothing to stop such criminal practices.
In a recent, but not the first, looting incident, the Israeli occupation authorities began digging works in the village of Bab Al-Hawa in Golan in an attempt to steal Syrian antiquities and falsify the history of the Syrian Golan. The crime is a new violation of UN resolutions, mainly UNSC Resolution No. 497 of 1981, which affirms that all the measures taken by the Israeli occupation in the Syrian Golan are null and void.
The village, whose residents were displaced when the Israeli forces occupied the Golan, is located in a rugged volcanic area. The occupation destroyed it along with 240 other villages and farms and displaced their residents.
Illegal excavations by the Israeli occupation authorities in the village started years ago and they stole what they found of antiquities and smuggled them. At that time, they unearthed a cemetery that contained several graves that date back to the pre-history period, the remains of a basalt stone wall and pottery vessels that go back to the Byzantine era. Last week, the occupation resumed digging works in the village in an incident that came only 20 days after the occupation announced a plan to raze the remaining houses in the village of Ein Feit, whose residents were also displaced during the Israeli attack on Golan, with the aim of turning it into a military site for the occupation forces and obliterating the Syrian Arab identity of the village by changing its features.
Syria always reiterates that the Golan is an integral part of Syria and that it is working to restore it in full by all means that are guaranteed by the international law. And, until the international community acts to stop the Israeli criminal acts and provocative practices, the steadfast people in the occupied Syrian Golan will continue with their resilience, resistance and struggle to restore their lands and rights.
Hamda Mustafa