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Syria
Different accounts on whether Golan inhabitants were forcefully expelled or whether they fled (1997-2002)
- According to the Syrian government, many inhabitants of the Golan were expelled by Israeli forces
- According to the Israelis, the inhabitants of Kuneitra fled before the Israeli army arrived to that city
- USCR reports that the inhabitants fled but also that the Israelis leveled the city of Kuneitra with bulldozers and dynamite before giving it back to Syria in 1974
"Only five Syrian villages still remain in the part of Golan that Israel occupies. These villages, in the mountainous north of Golan, were spared because U.N. forces arrived before they could be destroyed." (Fecci June 2000)
According to the Syrian Government
"Through its settlement occupation, Israel razed to earth more than 244 villages and private property of the Golan. Only five Syrian villages have been left." (Mission of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations 11 March 1997)
"Since 1948, the Syrian Arab Republic […] has been subjected, like other neighbouring Arab States, to a real threat of war by Israel and, on many occasions, this threat of war has culminated in actual aggression against the territory […], particularly in 1967 when Israel seized part of the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, which it is still occupying, and expelled a large proportion of its population." (UN Human Rights Committee 25 August 2000, para.49)
According to the Israeli National Council for the Golan
In the 1967 Six Day War, in response to Syrian attacks, the IDF captured the Golan Heights in just over 24 hours of hard fighting on June 9-10. Nearly all of the Golan's Arab inhabitants fled as a result of the war; four Druze villages remain, three on the slopes of Mt. Hermon and one in the northern Golan. There is also a small Sunni Muslim village at Wassif." (National Council for the Golan December 1997, "History")
According to the Jerusalem Post
"That morning [10 June 1967], however, Radio Damascus issued the false report that Kuneitra had fallen to Israeli forces, perhaps a desperate bid to force an intervention by the Soviets, who might have feared for the safety of Damascus. In any case, the report prompted Syrian forces to flee in panic back toward Damascus, leaving Kuneitra indeed open for the Israelis. Dayan ordered the army to push on and take Kuneitra, with the final cease-fire taking effect at 6:30 p.m." (Arnold 1 February 2000)
According to USCR
"Except for some Druze villagers who stayed behind, most of the Syrian population of the Golan Heights fled in 1967. […] After the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Israel agreed to return a slice of territory along the eastern edge of the Golan Heights, extending to Kuneitra, the one-time capital of Golan Province, in return for a repatriation of Israeli POWs [Prisoners of War]. Before leaving, however, the Israelis leveled the city with bulldozers and dynamite. Although its 53,000 displaced residents had been expected to return, President Assad said that the city was uninhabitable, and it remained empty." (USCR 2002)
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Sources
Mission of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations in Geneva, 11 March 1997, Statement by Mr. Taher Al-Hussami, Permanent Representative a.i. of the Syrian Arab Republic, at the 53rd session of UN CHR under agenda item (4)
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Information displayed on this page consists of excerpts of external reports and thus does not necessarily reflect the views of the IDMC. All excerpts are sourced. Links to online versions of the original documents are provided where available. The headline and bullet point summary at the top of the page are added by the IDMC. Other text added by the IDMC is in bold italics.
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