Reacting to recent statements by Israeli leaders about the future of the Golan Heights if peace is reached with Syria, Golan residents met with President Ezer Weizman to voice their anxieties over a possible Israeli pullout from the area.
Golan residents became alarmed when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said last week that one Golan settlement might be dismantled in the first stage of an Israeli withdrawal from the area as part of an overall peace agreement with Syria.
In addition, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres sparked public debate when he reportedly told King Hassan II of Morocco over the weekend that the Golan was “Syrian territory.”
Peres later clarified his comments, which were reported in the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot, by nothing that all he meant was that Israel is currently on the Golan for security, not ideological, reasons.
Meanwhile, Rabin softened his stand Monday, telling the Labor Party Caucus that any withdrawal from the Golan would first be put to the people in a national referendum, a pledge he has made in the past.
The comments from Rabin and Peres created anxiety among Golan residents.
Some 11,000 Israelis now live on the Golan Heights, which was captured from Syria in 1967.
At Kibbutz El-Rom, located near the Syrian border, residents described feeling tense and resentful that “we have to hear about these things in the media, and not directly from the government,” as one resident told Israel Radio.
After their talks with Weizman, members of the Golan Resident’s Council said they felt reassured that there was someone listening to them in the president’s residence.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered the resident’s council to stop giving money to a public campaign aimed at getting Israelis to oppose a return of the Golan to Syria.
The temporary restraining order was handed down at the request of the Peace Now movement, which objects to municipal funds being used for political purposes.
The Golan regional council was given 15 days to explain why it is funding the campaign.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
