The frenzied attempts of the Israeli occupation entity  since its occupation of the Syrian Arab Golan in June 1967 failed to find evidence to prove the validity of its claims of any presence on this precious part of the homeland.

Since the first months of the occupation, the Israeli  authorities  have conducted archaeological surveys and excavations in the Golan in an effort to falsify historical facts  and subsequently plunder, steal and sell Syrian antiquities.

In a scientific paper entitled “Zionist violations of the antiquities of the occupied Syrian Golan and attempts to distort its  Arab cultural heritage ,” Dr. Camellia Abu Jabal, a professor at the University of Damascus, Department of History  stated  that the so-called Antiquities Authority of the  Israeli occupation entity has sought  in addition to various Zionist institutions  to distort and falsify the history and antiquities of the occupied  Syrian  Golan. 

She   referred  to articles  published by the occupation entity's newspapers about the thefts of the Golan antiquities since the first months of its occupation, when Moshe Dayan, the Israeli Minister of War at the time, stole artifacts from sites in the village of Al-Fakhoura in the middle of the Golan  including the crown of a large column of basalt marble that had on its head a seven-legged candlestick.

According to Dr. Abu Jabal, the systematic violations of the Israeli occupation of the antiquities of the occupied  Syrian Golan  began in 1968 through excavation acts  carried out in the town of Banias, north of the Golan . This  was revealed by  workers of  the archeology field in the occupation entity.Later  these violations would take new dimensions with the formation of a mission called “The Land of Gishour” in the south of the Golan.

Abu Jabal, daughter of the town of Majdal Shams, confirmed that all these Israeli attempts have not succeeded in changing the identity of the Syrian Arab Golan, despite what the occupation authorities have found in terms of archaeological sites in the Golan which  reach more than 200 sites.

She  pointed out that the occupation authorities sought to compose alleged stories based on the falsification of some monuments and archaeological evidence in the occupied Syrian Golan  as happened in the excavations of the sites of “Khirbet al-Daliyah, Ad-Dararah, and Deir al-Aziz”.

The professor added the Israeli occupation authorities  demolished more than 110 Syrian villages with their archaeological sites  and removed  the cultural and human  antiquities. 

Dr. Abu Jabal underlined that the archaeological sites in the occupied Syrian  Golan were greatly damaged  as a result of  using them  by the occupation forces to carry out their maneuvers  in addition to replacing their Arabic names with Hebrew ones in order to hide their  historical evidence and features , including the hills of Abu Nada, Al-Aram and Sheikha.

She  revealed  that  in return for the systematic destruction of most of the Syrian archaeological sites by the occupation authorities, they kept other sites   to be used for tourism, as was the case in the two archaeological sites of Rujm Al-Hiri and the Church of the Chair, as well as the stones of archaeological sites  which were used to build military facilities in the occupied Syrian  Golan.

Dr. Abu Jabal  indicated  that the number of the archaeological missions of the occupation operating in the occupied Syrian Golan exceeded 15  distributed over many regions, villages and towns  including “Khasfin Wafiq, Wadi Hariri,  Tal Al-Barouk, Deir Qurouh, Khirbat Al-Rafid and others. 

She  underscored  the occupation authorities’ blatant violation of  international laws and  charters  through their violations  against  the Syrian archaeological heritage in the occupied  Syrian Golan including  acts of looting, forgery, vandalism of sites, theft and transfer of their precious  artifacts , noting that international law prohibits carrying out excavations of antiquities in the occupied territories.

In light of what the archaeological heritage in the Syrian Golan is exposed to by the occupation authorities, Dr. Abu Jabal stressed  the extremely important role of the people of the Golan in resisting these plans, as they always affirm their categorical rejection of all the decisions taken by the occupation authorities aiming to change the identity of the Syrian Arab Golan.

Rawaa Ghanam