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Published: September 8th 2009
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In my first weekend during the Ulpan we had a one day hike to the Golan Heights. The Golan Heights are situated in the north on the border to Syria. The description of the trip was as followed: "This is a typical Golan hike with gorges and waterfalls to swim under. The trail includes the Deborah and Gilabon falls, a bat cave and ancient ruins." I didn't see a bat cave, but the Gilabon falls were amazing. 35 metres tall falling into a pool of nice and cold water. The hike itself was about 4-5 hours long. Personally I think it was a little to hot for hiking, I hope to do another hike up there in a cooler time of year.
We had an excellent tourguide giving us a lecture about the Golan Heights. Internationally the Golan Heights is not recognised as Israeli land. For example in the european songfestival the Golan Heights are not om the map of Israel. Israel took over the Golan Heights from Syria during the Six Day War in 1967. In theory the Golan Heights should be 'occupied territory' like the westbank and the gazastrip, but in this case Israel took the land from
the Syrians and pushed all the syrians out of the territory. During our lecture (which was held in the shade by a river in a deep valley) we were told why The Golan Heights are so important to Israel. I'd like to share with you some interesting facts I learned that day.
* First of all The Golan Heights is a very strategical region during war. Before the war in 1967 Syria had full view over the northern part of Israel. This made the people living there very unsafe.
* Just under the Golan Heights is the Kinerret, which is also known as the Sea of Galille or the sea Jesus walked on. The Kinerret is a fresh water lake which is Israels only fresh water source. The Kinerret provides Israel with drinking water. Before 1967 the syrians tried to block all the small rivers in the Golan that mound out in the Kinerret. By doing this the Kinerret would dry out and Israel would be left without drinking water. It is therefore very important for Israel to have control over these small rivers. In Israels peace agreement with Jordan they promissed to help Jordan with fresh water
supplies. Therefore one can conclude that if Israel gives up the Golan (which obviously will never happen) they can loose their freshwater and their peaceagreement with Jordan.
* In the Golan there are still Druse living. These Druse have Syrian citizenship although they live in 'israeli territory'. This is because if one day the Golan would be taken over by the Syrians again, the Druse won't be sent away from their homes.
On the way down from the Golan we passed a lot of old syrian houses and bunkers. They had a view over the entire valley from there. You could even see the border to Lebanon from those houses. In the last part of the hike we walked through a very small passage. It was about 1.5 metres in the width. On both sides there were fields filled with mines, it was a scary feeling.
All in all the hike was amazing, but too hot! Hopefully I'll get a second chance in a better time of year.
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