In the Druze village of Majdal Shams, situated in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, a mountain range separates the residents from the raging war across the border in Syria. The locals speak of firing and bombardments that can be not only heard but sometimes seen. “I have family in Syria,” says Hassan, a local council worker. “I am very worried about them.”
Many Majdal Shams residents are in a similar position: They have relatives in Syria, separated after Israel captured the Golan plateau during the 1967 war. All they can do is watch the war on TV, and hear the muffled tones of friends and family on the telephone. Their frustration is shared in part by some of the Jewish residents of the Golan Heights. “I really dislike the situation that we as neighbours can’t help,” says Edit Kimchi, 50, a resident of the town of Katzrin. “Because we can’t. Whatever we do is bad, so we’d better not help,” she says. “But they are in a holocaust! They are where we were just 70 years ago!”
