A new settlement, Haroov, was founded on the southern Golan Heights last week a demonstration of Israel’s determination to populate the region which is under daily Syrian artillery barrage. Inaugural festivities had to be curtailed, however, because of the situation on the northern front. Relatives and friends of the new settlers driving up for the occasion were stopped at a road block and transferred to a special bus for the last leg of the trip to the site of Haroov. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, which gave a concert at the inauguration, performed for only 10 minutes instead of the customary one hour.
Golan Heights settlers are fearful that any surrender of territory captured in 1967 in the interests of disengagement with Syria will jeopardize their safety. Addressing himself to that problem, Minister-Without-Portfolio Israel Galili declared at a meeting of the Kibbutz Hameuchad Movement that while the government seeks disengagement with Syria it would allow “no question mark to hover over the continued existence of the Golan settlements.” He said Israel could not forget “those days when the Syrians were on the Golan Heights attacking our settlements in the Huleh area. We cannot agree to go back to the conditions before the Six-Day War.”
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