" Welcome to the Golan Heights, Marhabtein, Bruchim Habaim!" The Golan Heights are a strange, strange place. Cast away in their cold north, this bean-shaped stretch of land, which doesn’t seem to fit in either Israel nor Syria, is in many respects a case of its own.
It’s nothing like the West Bank, and there are no talks of resistance, nor Syrian flags on every other house. Nor refugee camps, for that matter.
It’s not really Syria anymore, and it’s not Israel - surely not Israel. The weakening infrastructure and the sight of the Arabic-speaking Druze on the street remind you promptly of that.
It’s nothing like the West Bank, and there are no talks of resistance, nor Syrian flags on every other house. Nor refugee camps, for that matter.
It’s not really Syria anymore, and it’s not Israel - surely not Israel. The weakening infrastructure and the sight of the Arabic-speaking Druze on the street remind you promptly of that.
View of the Golan/Syrian border, with flagpoles a few hundred metres apart. Surreal... (Click on the photo for the full screen version. For a Higher-Res photo (without the labels), click here.)
Politically it resembles Jerusalem - both occupied in 1967, both ‘annexed’ by Israel in 1981, and most of their inhabitants are stateless, citizens of nowhere.
That was actually my main question to people there:
Do you consider yourself Syrian or Israeli?
Needless to say, such an awfully undiplomatic question can only come from an inexperienced intelligence officer, or a completely ignorant tourist with a camera around his neck, namely, moi.
For three people asked (Prof. Jensen would kick my ass if he knew that my sample had an n=3...), I got three different answers...
1. Willy the Israeli
Born to a Syrian father and a Lebanese mother, he first introduced himself as being Lebanese. Which I thought a little surprising.
A Christian, Willy is 24. He works in a café in Mas’ada. And he does not identify with Syria, where he never really lived; and as for Israel, “well, when you spend 24 years among Jews, you become one of them”. I was baffled.
That was actually my main question to people there:
Do you consider yourself Syrian or Israeli?
Needless to say, such an awfully undiplomatic question can only come from an inexperienced intelligence officer, or a completely ignorant tourist with a camera around his neck, namely, moi.
For three people asked (Prof. Jensen would kick my ass if he knew that my sample had an n=3...), I got three different answers...
1. Willy the Israeli
Born to a Syrian father and a Lebanese mother, he first introduced himself as being Lebanese. Which I thought a little surprising.A Christian, Willy is 24. He works in a café in Mas’ada. And he does not identify with Syria, where he never really lived; and as for Israel, “well, when you spend 24 years among Jews, you become one of them”. I was baffled.
“So you think of yourself as Israeli?”
He seemed a little uneasy as I put in stark terms, blunt and rude as I am. But he opined.
As he spoke to me in Arabic, he still peppered his sentences with expressions of exclamations in Hebrew, sometimes completely changing languages. I think I gave up mentioning it to him after the 10th time...
The prospect of Syrian sovereignty over the Golan doesn’t excite him the least. “I’d rather stay in Israel, if that happens”.
Or in Sharm-El-Sheikh. Apparently, he likes Sharm-El-Sheikh.
2. Maher: “The Motherland”
Maher runs a money exchange agency in the city of Mas’ada, which I think doesn’t see many customers. All the people who were present when I met him - and insisted on dragging me to his office for coffee - were friends and acquaintances, also sipping coffee.“Syrian, of course!” with a hint of indignation at my semi-insulting question. But that nationalistic proclamation comes with a caveat: he’s actually enjoying his life and seems in no hurry of returning under the motherland’s wing.
“We work here, in agriculture a lot. We also work with the Jews, you know, trade and things... and we speak the language, too. So business is okay”. He did not specify the kind of business.
When I asked him if he hoped that the Golan be returned to Syria, he acquiesced. Then added: “I think we’re waiting for the Motherland to come and rescue us” - more of a joke addressed more to his friends sitting in his office than a response to my question.
“But it will happen”, he added.
3. Mansour: “بين السماء و الأرض” - “Between Earth and Sky”
We bumped into Mansour as we asked for directions, and he invited us to his house. We’re just exotic I guess.Father of three and grandfather of two, Mansour lives in Majdal Shams, the Golan’s largest town (pop. 9000) surrounded by his family (the next four houses are his siblings and their families). My impression of Mansour is that he is self-sufficient and quite pragmatic. The kind of guy who got tired of thinking.
His son was among nearly 500 Golanis who go to study every year in Syria; his graduation certificate from Damascus University was proudly hanging in his house, right next to his daughter’s Israeli high school diploma.
A large painting of Bab-Toma (one of Damascus’ old gates - below), by his son, decorates the living room. His balcony uncovers the spreading town of Majdal Shams, and the Golan-Syria border. Quite a sight.
Answering my infamous question, he said --- “neither. We’re between Earth and Sky”.
He didn’t sound like he cared much anyway.
(Willy's photo is by Lisa Goldman, whom you people clearly haven't harrassed enough to post her entry on this trip.)
10 comments:
I first learned about Golan Heights from the excellent movie "Syrian Bride."
Excellent post, as always. :)
“So you think of yourself as Israeli?”
He seemed a little uneasy as I put in stark terms, blunt and rude as I am. But he opined.
As he spoke to me in Arabic, he still peppered his sentences with expressions of exclamations in Hebrew, sometimes completely changing languages. I think I gave up mentioning it to him after the 10th time...
A year ago I was working with a Christian guy whom i find absolutely indistinguishable from anybody else in the company, not by the mentality, nor by the language though some people said that he had a slight Arabic accent. I don't think this is a majority, but I do think that some Christian Arabs are becoming progressively more integrated. Though I would not say they are becoming Jews, more like Israelis.
The IDF recently claimed that the number of Christian Arabs volunteering to serve in the IDF is growing every year, though they did not give any numbers.
This process seems to be accelerated by some tensions between Muslim and Christian Arabs. The guy I was working with has been telling me something about Israeli Arabs becoming more religious and that they are getting more problems with them.
Interesting post. As for me, the Golan is gorgeous...but no job opportunities!
Vertigo: excellent film indeed. I actually watched the film again after this visit and it made so much sense, having seen the places and having heard from the people..
I did not see a Syrian bride, though.
Nobody: very interesting. I'll surely ask around on this. Blunt as I am... :)
What makes someone more integrated in a society? I think that person is becoming more like the society - I'm thinking Arabs in France, since that's an example I'm familiar with - or that he and the society are both moving in the same direction, which brings him closer to the society's mainstream. Which would be the case if both Christian Arabs, and the Israeli society, are 'secularising'. That this would not be the case of Israeli Muslims - who will be missing the metaphorical train, then - does not surprise me.
Gila: I had a great time there. Too short a visit, surely worth a follow-up!
As for job opps -- I'm sure 'Motherland Maher' would put you up. :)
Mohamed
I am not a political scientist or sociologist but all articles on the issue I happened to read recently point to the same thing - Israelis are becoming more religious and this trend is proceeding on a massive scale. It's claimed that by 2012 1/3 of Jewish children learning in elementary schools will be learning in Haredi (ultra orthodox) schools. And the ultras are not the only religious people we got here. There is apparently an additional trend of some secular Israelis becoming traditionalists and even outright orthodox.
The thing about Christian Arabs is that their economic and social status can't be even compared to that of Muslim Arabs. First of all they are the most educated community in Israel, ahead of everybody else, including Jews, in terms of matriculation certificates and university enrollment. Now I've never seen any detailed statistics about how they compare to other communities in terms of their economic situation but some evidence indirectly confirms their special situation.
For example Christians are barely 10% of the Arab population, but they account for 25% of all employment in the Arab sector. So they should be earning at least three times more per capita than Muslims before taxes are applied. Add to this that all studies point to a very strong correlation between education and wages in Israel and that this is the most educated sector in the country. As an economist you can surely appreciate this data.
how have i missed this blog? are you still around? have you left - can we catch up? u r my co-blogger dammit!
:)
I do not know how you missed this blog!! :-)
And yep, still around. Shoot me an email (traveller.within AT gmail) :)
Mohamed, nice blog, and very good Post about the Golan Heights, I love this kind of reporting
It is hard to say how integrated Israeli Arabs can become as long as the country remains a Jewish state.
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