August 12, 2001 — Mudeif Productions

*The Sea of Galilee from the Golan Heights.*

Somehow we managed not to comment on the beauty of this area yesterday. It is unbelievable with its mountains and valleys - not unlike Switzerland in the summertime, but a heck of a lot warmer.Very lush and green, where apple trees grow - the main produce of the area.

*There are apple orchards all over the Golan Heights.*

We spent most of the day radiating in and out of Majdal Shems (Tower of the Sun), the largest remaining Arab village. We first went to an abandoned Israeli bunker, from which we could see the other side of the disengagement line which is Syria as well as Mount Hermon, mentioned often in the Bible for its impressive heights (Psalm 133). Marthame noted that we could receive signals from seven different cellphone systems from five different countries.

We then headed to the "shouting hill," a position right at the ceasefire line (Israeli, Syrian, and UN posts are all well within view) where families used to communicate with one another by loudspeaker across the border. Since the advent of cellphones, people don't do this as much, except on special occasions (esp. weddings), when they actually want to see each other (through binoculars, of course).

*A former Syrian military trench in the now Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.*

Strange and sad are the unknown casualties of war, which brings us to our final stop - the village of Al-Ghayar just northeast of the Golan. In 1967, the Israelis assumed it belonged to Lebanon and left it alone. Instead, it had been a Syrian village and was now cut off from the rest of Syria by the Israeli presence in the Golan. Now it is under full Israeli military control and guarded by quite the bevy of troops. From the other edge of town we could see the flag of Hezbollah - the Syrian-funded guerrillas who work out of Southern Lebanon.

*Water access is just one of many reasons for territorial acquisition in the Middle East.*

We did go to one normal tourist site, the castle Nimrod (named after the Biblical great-grandson of Noah who was "a mighty warrior" (Gen. 10:8). We read different accounts about its origins, either originally built by the Crusaders or by Arabs; at any rate, it was used by many armies and leaders before it fell into disrepair and was used to house livestock. It still remains very grand, and the views are unparalleled.

We then caught our bus back to Jerusalem from the Jewish town of Kiryat Shmona, driving through the Jordan Valley road (not the most comfortable route in Israeli public transportation). On the road, most of us got calls from friends in Birzeit worried about our well-being - apparently a suicide bomber had been in Haifa, and there had been all kinds of chaos at the Surda checkpoint - shooting, tear gas, etc. - for the last two days. We weren’t sure whether we should head back to Birzeit, but decided to get to Ramallah, where the taxi drivers would know the situation.

*Ar-Ram checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah.*

At the Ar-Ram checkpoint just outside Jerusalem, we found ourselves in a bottleneck of loud, unbearable traffic. One of our group said, "This is just like New York, except the person at the other end isn’t carrying an M-16 -- usually." Most of the group decided to head back to Birzeit (passing without incident), but we decided to crash with a friend in Ramallah and head to Birzeit for class in the morning.