Hiking the Golan Heights

Last week was Passover, a holiday which is very important to the religion of Judaism. Our program gave us a week long break to do whatever we want--to travel, to visit family, or to just relax. My cousin and I decided that we were going to backpack through the Golan Heights with our friend Itai. It ended up being much more than a pretty hike. It turned out to be an extremely thought provoking experience that I will never forget.

I always have thought of the Golan Heights as Israel's northernmost wilderness. I never knew much about it other than that it borders with Syria, has beautiful mountains and streams, and is mostly land which hasn't been built on. As it turns out, the Golan Heights is rich with history--Jewish, Syrian, and Turkish. It has endured many wars, and is still considered sovereign Syrian territory according to the international community, but Israel disputes this. It is basically a massive rocky plateau formed in the Anti-Lebanon mountains, supplying Israel with a third of its drinking water and drawing nearly 3 million tourists each year. 

Before the Six Day War in 1967, Syria, perched on the edge of the Golan heights peering into the Galilee, was shooting artillery and sniper fire indiscriminately at civilian populations. When the war began, Israel had two options, sit in the galilee and get bombed to oblivion, or push the Syrians out of the Golan heights and down to the other side. Somehow, Israel did it, but with many consequences. There were around 100,000 Druze and Circassian refugees which fled deeper into Syria, with only 7,000 Druze staying back. At first, after the war, it was clear that Israel would eventually give back the golan in a peace agreement, but it never happened. Some 5 prime ministers have offered to give up to 97% of the Golan back in exchange for a comprehensive peace agreement, every time Syria has declined, refusing to accept the existence of the state of Israel, and refusing for any of the Golan to be under Jewish control. President Bashar al-Assad said "The Golan Heights is all Arab, and will always be Arab."

Cartoon from a Syrian Newspaper pre-1967

After years of broken down peace talks, another war began. In 1973, the Arab nations initiated a war against Israel on all sides, to destroy the Jewish state. It began on the day of Yom Kippur, the holiest day for Judaism when all the people were fasting and praying. After a brutal attack on the Golan, Israel ended up somehow surviving, pushing Syrians deep into their territory. After this war, the Golan has been considered very much Israeli by the populations here. They have established 41 settlements, resurrected ancient Jewish ruins and synagogues, and have made an effort to make the area more Israeli. Today 10% of Druze residents have accepted Israeli citizenship.

This gets me to the trip. We began in Majdal Shams, a villiage of 8,800 people, the largest population center in the Golan heights. It sits on the southern foothills of the Hermon Mountain. It was a beautiful city. Knowing the situation before leaving, I expected to see a completely Arab town. However, upon arriving, I noticed that nearly every storefront had Hebrew written on it rather than Arabic, even though the population was clearly Arab Druze. We tried to get a taxi, but there were no taxis here. We were in the country. So we started our 125 Km hike from the city, missing the first 3 km down the Hermon. 

We passed through 3 Druze villages during our trip. The second two villages were Mas'adeh and Buq'a'tah. As we walked up and down the mountains, through scores of vineyards, olive groves, and almond trees, we encountered several local farmers, all of whom were very friendly and helped us to navigate when we were lost. I was amazed at the friendliness of the Druze people, so many of whom were so excited to meet us American hikers. While at a convenience store in Buq'a'ta, I spoke with the cashier as I purchased some mars bars and pasta. She asked me in Hebrew, "Are you american?" I said yes, of course. She said, "cool, I am Israeli." As basic as this sentence was, and as normal as it may seem, it blew my mind. 

Walking through Buq'a'ta

Buqata was Syrian for nearly 90 years. It's civilians link back to Syrian culture for countless generations. But this cashier called herself an Israeli. The signs in the town were written in Hebrew. So it has been 45 years that Israel has occupied the Golan heights. These days, it is seeming like it will never be given up, that a comprehensive peace with a war torn Syria may be impossible for the time being. Buqata today, and Majdal Shams seemed very much Israeli to me. The Wikipedia page says that the Golan Heights are still considered Syrian to the international community, but come there today and tell me that again. 

The thing is, you see this region on a map, with dotted lines all over the place and no solid borders, you imagine a war torn region. You can see it here too. Everywhere you walk, there is a minefield likely within a couple hundred meters. Nearly every expansive view includes ruins of settlements and farms, ancient and recent, as well as an abandoned tank here and there. However, it truly isn't as intense as it seems. I think it's actually the most serene and relaxing place that I have visited during my time here in the middle east. People here are very kind--both the Jews and the Arabs, as far as I can tell you. I encountered no hostility. I could understand if I got into a heated conversation with a local about the conflict, things could get hairy. They may show solidarity with the refugees. But I understand. It is terrible that so many people have been negatively impacted by the regional wars. As much as everyone would like to find a solution, where peace is born, everyone is happy, and all rightful ownership of property is restored, that can never happen. 

So many people see the conflicts here and think they have the solution. They think there is an aggressor and a defender. But I can tell you something, after 9 months here I have no solution. The lines of right and wrong, instigator and bystander, aggressor and defender are very blurred. I don't think anybody here has a solution. It may be one of the most complicated conflicts in the world. All we can be sure of is who the ruling power is right now. Take a look at history and notice one thing. The focus of power changes all the time. People learn to live and to cope. Life goes on. 

Moving on, past Buqata, we found the border with Syria. Well.....not exactly a border actually. Since the armistice agreement of 1981, there exists a huge buffer zone between Israel and Syria which is occupied by the United Nations. Actually, the peak of the Hermon mountain is there. This view that we saw was absolutely stunning. It is actually why the Golan is such a strategic area. From the Golan plateau, one can see the entire length of the Syrian border and peer into all of its border cities. The horizon stretches all across the plain, and all of it is Syrian. With binoculars, on top of Har Bental, a mountain whose army base was the most strategic point in winning the Yom Kippur War, we could even see Al Quneitra, a ghost town in the demilitarized UN zone, which once housed 20,000 residents.

The Story of Al Quneitra is pretty amazing. During the '67 war, Syrian troops stationed in Al Quneitra received bad intel from the Syrian Army command that the troops were retreating. In a quick last second move, the soldiers left their tanks, evacuated the city, and retreated. That day, Israel rolled into the city expecting one of the biggest battles on the Syrian front, only to find thousands of empty houses, cars, and tanks. When Israel gave the city back in the UN brokered armistice agreement, Syria decided to keep it abandoned as a memorial to the war.

We actually had another opportunity to walk through a destroyed Syrian army base.

Just as the Syrian residence in this place was so apparent, so was the Jewish residence. That night we camped at an Israeli settlement built near the ruins of an ancient Jewish settlement which existed during the tribal period of Israel, before the creation of Jerusalem. The settlement of Keshet today exists isolated in an area surrounded by uncultivated land that extends to the horizon. 

The next day we camped next to a Mikvah near the ancient Khurva Sinagogue which overlooks a beautiful valley which extends into the Galilee.

We saw many of these clear examples of ancient Jewish residence in the Golan heights--a fact which has lead many far right politicians to demand that Israel officially annex the Golan heights. 

After writing all about my long distance hike in the Golan, you must be asking yourself, what is this doing in a blog about Post-Traumatic Stress. This hike placed me in an area which Israel occupies, which is disputed over. Thousands of lives have been lost over the battles for who controls this strategic area. Today, Israelis consider the Golan heights very much a part of Israel, considering the costs it has been forced to endure in order to keep this sliver of land. 

The Golan heights exemplifies the very real phenomenon of Post-Traumatic Stress in this region of the world.  There is no escaping the war that exists there. I was forced to follow a trail where in parts, everywhere around me were mine fields surrounded in barbed wire, and there was only one path. The way that an Israeli would interpret the things they see here could evoke anger, nationalism, or general apathy which would lead him or her to try to leave this volatile region. To me, this sounds like basic symptoms of PTSD. 

It might not be a serious personal problem. It is, however, a serious national problem. I hope that things can change. That everyone here will rise above their differences, overcome hate and paranoia, and ensure lasting peace of nations, of mind, and prosperity. I'm not sure what is to come.

Passover commemorates our exodus from slavery and our beginnings as a people brought together by common hardship. This situation in which our hardships keep us together as a people, even in exile, has repeated itself time and time again throughout history. It is probably the reason that Jewish people still exist. Whether it was living as slaves under an ancient king, surviving in a wild desert, being oppressed by foreign nations in which we lived, surviving a genocide, or trying to create a country in a region which doesn't welcome us, the struggles that the Jewish people have endured have been the events which have brought us closest together. Together, we can help alleviate our mental angst. We can give our hope, our love, and try our best to understand. This trip brought me one step closer.