InfoAnda - Israeli settlers claim Golan Heights 'forever'

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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Search: Sign InNew User? Sign Up News Home - Help Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Asia Pacific World Search Search: Israeli settlers claim Golan Heights 'forever' AFP - 1 hour 22 minutes ago KATZRIN, Golan Heights (AFP) - - A light drizzle falls on visitors watching stunning views of the Golan unfold before them as settlers go all out to promote the territory Israel seized from Syria in war in 1967. ADVERTISEMENT The scene takes place inside a specially designed cinema where huge fans and mist-spraying sprinklers add a touch of reality to the "Magic of the Golan" movie depicting the spectacular scenery that attracts tourists and new settlers to the occupied region. The movie, shown at a mall in Katzrin, the largest city in the Golan, is popular with visitors to the strategic plateau that overlooks Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Representatives of the 20,000 Israeli settlers in the Golan Heights hope the film will do its bit to further boost tourism and bring in more residents, which they believe will give them more clout in arguing the lush region should never be returned to Syria. "As far as I'm concerned, the Golan is mine, it's ours. We created it," says Ramona Bar Lev, spokeswoman for the Golan Residents Committee. "Our problem is how to convince the government and the Knesset (parliament) to keep the Golan part of Israel," she says. She admits she is worried about the future, even though the new Israeli government of hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leans heavily to the right. Israel -- technically still at war with Syria since 1948 -- occupied the Golan in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community. More than 18,000 Syrians, mostly Druze, an offshoot of Islam, are left from the Golan's original population of 150,000. In May last year, Syria and Israel began indirect talks mediated Turkey after direct negotiations halted eight years earlier over the fate of the strategic plateau. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has demanded Israels withdrawal from the Golan as a prerequisite to peace, something the previous Israeli government had suggested could be a possibility. But the latest round of talks stopped in December when Israel launched a devastating war on the Gaza Strip. Earlier this month, Israel's new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman ruled out any withdrawal from the Golan in exchange for peace with Syria. "There is no cabinet resolution regarding negotiations with Syria, and we have already said that we will not agree to withdraw from the Golan Heights," Lieberman told the Haaretz newspaper. "Peace will only be in exchange for peace." But settlers in the Golan are not entirely convinced. "We mistrust politicians as a whole, whether Likud or Labour," says Bar Lev, in reference to the right-wing party headed by Netanyahu and the centre-left party of Defence Minister Ehud Barak. She points to assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin who initially vowed Israel would never let the Golan go but later said the Jewish state was willing to cede occupied land for a comprehensive peace with its archfoe. "We were sure he was our guy and then we saw he wasn't." Her husband, Katzrin mayor Sammi Bar Lev, insists that if Syria wants peace, "the price is well known: Israel stays on the Golan." Like most settlers in the region he considers that reaching a peace deal with Syria would be little more than a formality, since there has been tension but no fighting since the Yom Kippur war of 1973 when Israeli forces turned back Syrian troops who had rolled into the Golan. "We've had peace for more than 30 years, why change it if it's not broken," says the mayor of Katzrin, where the population of 7,500 makes it the largest city in the Golan. "We were here thousands of years ago," he says, pointing to the ruins of a synagogue from about 1,500 years ago at an archaeological site in Kitzrin where tourists watch reanactments of Jewish daily life in Biblical times. "We'll still be here for thousands of years." He says he is convinced that attracting large numbers of Jewish settlers will eventually make it impossible for the Israeli government to give up the plateau he has called home for four decades. Like many Israelis, he is convinced that holding on to the Golan -- which overlooks the country's main water source the Sea of Galilee -- is crucial for the security of the Jewish state. Israel has key military installations in the Golan, including observation posts on the 2,814-metre (9,230-feet) high Mt Hermon from where they monitor activity in Syria and Lebanon. Settlers like to point out that Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 has failed to halt firing of rockets by militants from the Palestinian territory, and warn that pulling out of the Golan would dramatically threaten Israel's security. "If we leave the Golan, there'll be no Israel," says Avishai Yaakov, a young settler who served with the elite Golani Brigade. Email Story IM Story Printable View Blog This Recommend this article 0 users recommend Sign in to recommend this article » Most Recommended Stories » Related Articles: Entertainment & Lifestyle Violence down, curtain up for Kashmir theatreAFP - 1 hour 4 minutes ago Circus cats play guitar, tap bells, ride skateboardAFP - 1 hour 7 minutes ago 'Housewives' cast gathers to bid Sheridan adieuAP - 1 hour 30 minutes ago Battling the anti-celluloid tide in SyriaAFP - 2 hours 12 minutes ago Decades after the MGs, Booker T takes center stageAP - Sunday, April 19 Enlarge Photo Israeli army officers look towards Syria from the Mount Bental observation post in the Golan Heights. Israel occupied the Golan in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community. Most Popular – Entertainment Viewed Mummies found in ancient Egypt burial chamber 'Dracula bandit' gets 20-yr jail sentence Police nab Norwegian pair during high-speed sex Ailing Citigroup returns to profit after heavy losses Britain's MI5 seeking real 'Q' View Complete List » Search: Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte Ltd. (Co. Reg. No. 199700735D). All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - Community - Intellectual Property Rights Policy - Help

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