"If any agreement was reached, it's very likely that the Jewish population would be forced to leave the territory."

Sami Khyiami, Syria's Ambassador to London last week said the settlers would be allowed to stay. It's unlikely many would accept that offer.

Labels: Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights

Israel has rejected peace talks with Syria.

Syria has been offering talks on full recognition for the past seven years - and hasn't even got a response.

That was until recently. Israel announced it would 'test' Bashar, and call his bluff by offering peace talks.

But Olmert set the bar so high that it knew Syria would say no - and that would paint Syria as the obstruction to peace in the region. Israel demanded that if the Occupied Golan Heights were returned to Syria, Syria would have to 'rent' the Golan Heights back to Israel.

So when Syria didn't immediately say no, some in Israel - and Washington - started to get a bit jittery. Olmert has now retracted his offer, saying simply that the time "isn't right".

Interesting to see where Ehud Olmert made the announcement. During talks with President Bush at the White House.

Labels: Israel, Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Peace talks, US

Syria is rejecting rumours of behind-the-scenes peace talks with Israel. Syria's Ambassador to the UN says there are no secret talks, and Syria isn't ashamed of negotiating with Israel.

It has called for Israel to return to the negotiating table and talk publicly. Syria clearly fears more broken promises from Olmert.

Syria has been calling for peace talks for the past seven years - they were ignored. Now Israel suddenly comes up with the idea of peace talks and it is portrayed as a 'test' of Syria's commitment to peace.

Well, here's the real test. Come out and talk publicly, oh Olmert the peacemaker, instead of living in the shadows that you have inhabited for so long.

Labels: Israel, Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Peace talks

The silence. On the blogosphere. On the streets.

Today, London held one of the first events dedicated to the Syrian Golan Heights for a long time. There was a day-long series of talks and discussions by journalists, diplomats and Syrianists at SOAS.

The Golan - chaired by Fawaz Akhras, British-Syrian Society
-Roots of the conflict (George Joffe, Cambridge & KCL)
-Colonisation of the Golan (Neil Quilliam, Control Risks)
-Personal stories (Dr. Ghassan Shannan, from the Golan & Ata Farhat, Syria TV, from the Golan and formerly imprisoned by Israel)

Strategic Signifcance of the Golan - chaired by Patrick Seale
-Water resources (Dr. Mark Zeitoun, LSE)
-The military balance (Tim Collins OBE, former colonel)
-Economic value of the Golan (Abdelkader Husrieh, economist)

Legal Perspectives - chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy QC
-International law and the Israeli occupation of the Golan (John McHugo, lawyer, CAABU board member)
-Israel, the Golan Heights and International Humanitarian Law (Guy Goodwin Gill, expert in International Refugee Law, former UK High Commission for Refugees)

Prospects for Peace - chaired by Charles Glass
-The Golan: the key to peace or a cause of war? (Dr. Sami Khiyami, Syrian Ambassador to the UK)

Roundtable on the Golan and the Media
-Ghayth Armanazi (Syrian Media Centre)
-Patrick Seale (Writer)
-Ian Black (The Guardian)
-Sharif Nashashibi (Arab Media Watch)

Three things stuck in my mind.

First - the Golan is the hidden occupation. The irony - it's the most quiet front in the region. But if nothing happens, there's no journalistic interest, and nothing will change.

Syria's Ambassador tried to claim there's a conspiracy in the media. With intelligence services controlling what is written. The CIA, Mossad and MI5 are the reason no-one knows about the Golan. The Guardian's Ian Black was sitting opposite the Ambassador as he made these comments. He was dismayed, and laughed at the suggestion.

The Arab conspiracy complex is something I have to fight against. There is no conspiracy. It is just that supporters of the other side are so much better at getting their message out. There is no mind-control.

Of course, Syria is to blame for not pushing the story - and today was about changing that. But is preaching to the converted in an academic environment going to raise awareness? Wassim wasn't impressed.



Second - how close Syria's Ambassador came to justifying dictatorship. Of course, he wasn't referring to Syria. It was in the abstract. Of course. The argument is that democratically elected leaders aren't held accountable for four or five years (we were talking about the Iraq war - 2 million people marching in the streets of London couldn't change Blair's mind). In a dictatorship, his argument went, leaders have to be much quicker in reacting to public opinion to maintain the frail mandate they cling on to.

It's a valid claim and an interesting critique of democracy. I'm not sure if that justifies dictatorship though.

And third - how many Syrianists I know in London, and how nice it was to find them again.

Labels: Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights

After seven years of asking, Israel finally agreed to launch peace talks with Syria. Israel made the offer to Damascus, and Syria's deputy Foreign Minister Ahmed Arnous has unsurprisingly said yes:

"Syria is prepared to renew talks based upon the land for peace principle, without preconditions, to bring about stability and security in the region ... President Assad is perfectly straightforward regarding Syria's aspirations to renew negotiations based on the rubrics of the Madrid Conference."

Labels: Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Peace talks

...is the deceptive headline.

Yes, Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he is willing to give Syria sovereignty over the Syrian Golan Heights IF Syria 'leases' the territory back to Israel for 25 years.

So, Israel is saying, we are prepared to keep your land, but admit that it is yours.

40 years of waiting - for that.

Israel says it has launched secret talks (so secret Israel has already made them public). And today, Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz says Syria has failed to respond to its generous offer.

Israel is setting Syria up to be the 'obstruction' to peace in the region.

Syria - don't forget - has been offering unconditional peace talks for the past seven years, but with no response.

Labels: Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Peace talks

I waited yesterday to see who would mention the fortieth anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Syria's Golan Heights, plus Gaza and the West Bank (including east Jerusalem).

The blogosphere is silent.

But we go mad when a handful of people are wrongly imprisoned, or when we have silly elections.

And Syria is silent too. We have parties for Bashar, but no memorial for the Golan.

So are the 'activists' in the West. The biggest event in London yesterday was a kite-flying protest organised by Jews for Justice for Palestinians. It was an awareness raising thing, and highly commendible. But it was a drop in a very very calm ocean.

Wassim has done a great job though. And Dubai Jazz (NEW LINK - apologies for missing you first time round) has an excellent personal tale. Thank you also to Yazan for republishing the Creative Syria discussion. And Phillip and the Syrian Brit have mentioned the anniversary in the past month (thanks Yazan).

I hope there are others I've missed. Please let me know.

Labels: Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Syrian blogosphere

An Israeli Minister says his country is ready to start negotiating with Syria.

Syria has repeatedly offered talks with Israel over the past seven years, but Israel has ignored every call.

When US Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Damascus and announced that Israel and Syria were ready to start peace talks, she was rebuked by Israel. Now, it seems, things have changed.

Israel's Minister for Immigration and Absorption Ze’ev Boim said that Israel is ready to start talks, and it seems he has dropped Israel's preconditions that Syria end support for what it calls terrorism (Hamas and Hizbollah). Instead, Boim only says that it would be useful if Syria didn't support Hizbollah: "In order to ensure a positive outcome of the talks with Israel, President Bashar al-Assad should stop arming Hezbollah, close HAMAS and Islamic Jihad headquarters in Damascus".

It is not clear whether his statement was a slip of the tongue, or whether he actually represents Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's views. Last year, Israel's Defence Minister and Foreign Minister publicly called for talks with Syria - Olmert said no.

Labels: Israel, Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Peace talks

"We would like to work as much as possible to see your country Syria recuperate the territory taken in 1967," said EU Foreign Police chief Javier Solana in a joint press conference in Damascus, after meeting the President.

Incredible words from a man who was until last week boycotting Syria. The EU has ended its ban on contacts with Syria in remarkable style.

It will soon be 25 years since Israel annexed the territory, amid criticism from the UN, EU and even the United States.

Labels: Israel, Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights, UN, US

Interesting piece from former Christian Science Monitor writer Helena Cobban.

"[Danial Saoud, the President of the venerable Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms in Syria - he was himself a political prisoner] told me that the number of (secular) political prisoners in the country is now less than 20."

Here's another quote: "For 18-24 months the Americans and Europeans have put a lot of pressure on the regime - but the regime then just pushes harder on us. ... Before the US invasion of Iraq, people here in Syria liked us, the human rights activists, and we had significant popular sympathy. But since what happened in Iraq, people here say 'Look at the results of that!' "

And the full piece:

The US and Syria, Human Rights and Democracy

As US 'democratization' efforts in the Middle East wane, human rights activists in Syria see their situation improving, says Helena Cobban.

I spent a few days in Damascus at the end of February, and was able to get a ground reality view of the effects of the Bush administration's (former) campaign for the forced 'democratization' of Middle Eastern societies on the work of Syrian citizens with long experience struggling for human rights and democracy in their country.

Bottom line: "Very bad indeed."

That was the verdict rendered on Bush's 'democratization' campaign by Danial Saoud, the President of the venerable Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms in Syria (CDF).

Saoud was himself a political prisoner from 1987 through 1999, and has been President of the CDF since August 2006. He was adamant that what Syria's rights activists need most of all right now is a resolution of their country's state of war with Israel.

Speaking of Condoleezza Rice he said, "Her pressure on the regime had a very bad effect for us. Now, for 18-24 months the Americans and Europeans have put a lot of pressure on the regime - but the regime then just pushes harder on us."

Mazen Darwish, who is Saoud's colleague in the CDF's three-person Presidential Council, told me, "Before the US invasion of Iraq, people here in Syria liked us, the human rights activists, and we had significant popular sympathy. But since what happened in Iraq, people here say 'Look at the results of that!'"

Saoud stressed that for Syrians, the question of Israel's continued occupation of Syria's Golan region itself constitutes a significant denial of the rights of all the Syrian citizens affected - both those who remain in Golan, living under Israeli military occupation rule there, and those who had fled when Israel occupied Golan in 1967 and have had to live displaced from their homes and farms for the 40 years since then. "Golan is Syrian land, and we have all the rights to get it back," he said.

In addition, he and the other rights activists I talked with pointed to the fact that the continuing state of war between Syria and Israel has allowed the Syrian regime to keep in place the State of Emergency that was first imposed in the country in 1963. "All these regimes in this area say they are postponing the issue of democracy until after they have solved the issues of Golan and Palestine," he said,

"So let's get them solved! Everything should start from this. The people in both Syria and Israel need peace. We need to build a culture of peace in the whole area. ... The CDF is working hard to build this culture."

Both men pointed out the numerous contradictions and ambiguities in the policy the United States has pursued regarding democratization in Syria. Darwish noted that, "When the US had a good relationship with Syria, in 1991, Danial was in prison - and the US didn't say anything about that." These two men, and other rights activists I talked with also noted that more recently, even during the Bush administration's big push for 'democratization' in Syria in 2004-2005, they were still happy to benefit from Syria's torture chambers by sending some suspected Al-Qaeda people there to be tortured.

Over the past year, two processes have been underway in Syria that seem to confirm these activists' argument that US pressure on the Damascus regime has been detrimental to their cause. Firstly, the rapid deterioration in the US' power in the region has considerably diminished Washington's ability to pressure the Syria regime on any issues, and Damascus has become notably stronger and self-confident than it was a year ago.

Secondly, over the same period, the situation of human rights activists within the country seems to have improved some.

Saoud told me that the number of (secular) political prisoners in the country is now less than 20. Indeed, the day we talked, about 16 Kurdish and student activists who had been held for less than a month had just been released. He said "No-one knows how many Islamist activists are in detention... We don't hear about them until they come to court." He said, "They don't torture people like Anwar al-Bunni or Michel Kilo, or the others who were detained last year for having signed the Beirut-Damascus Declaration." He indicated, however, that it was very likely that many of the Islamist detainees had been tortured. (Human Rights Watch's recently released report for 2006 states that in Syria, "Thousands of political prisoners, many of them members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and the Communist Party, remain in detention.)

Meanwhile, the main factor dominating political developments in Syria, as in the rest of the Middle East, is the continued and extremely painful collapse of conditions inside Iraq. Syrians have watched that collapse in horror. Their country has received and given a temporary refuge to more than a million Iraqis - a considerable burden on their nation, equivalent to the US taking in some 17 million refugees within just a couple of years. And since Iraq's collapse has occurred under a Washington-advertised rubric of "democratization," the whole tragedy in Iraq has tended to give the concept a very bad name, and has caused Arabs and Muslims throughout the Middle East to value political stability much, much more than hitherto.

Under those circumstances, it is very moving to still hear people living in Arab countries talking about the need for democracy. But when they do so, they are very eager to distance themselves from the coerciveness inherent in Washington's recent 'democratization' project. And they all - regime supporters and oppositionists, alike-stress the need for moves toward democratization to grow from the local people's needs and priorities, rather than the geo-strategies pursued by distant Washington.

Labels: Democracy, Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Media, reformists/dissidents, US

It's that time again. The border between Syria and the Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights has opened for the third year in a row. Syrian Druze farmers living in the occupied land are allowed to 'export' some of their apples into Syria.

One of my first blog posts ever was about the historic opening of the border in February 2005. SInce then it has become almost a tradition.

It is the only contact Syria and Israel have.

At 9am, a Red Cross lorry drives from Syria into the Occupied Territory. It is loaded with apples produced by the Syrian Druze who live under occupation, and then at 11.30am, the lorry crosses back into Syria.

The Syrian Druze are living in a no-man's land. They are not allowed to enter Israel, and prevented by the Israeli army from crossing into Syria. Many have had no contact with the rest of their families, living as refugees in Damascus. Much of their farmland has been stolen by Israeli settlers, and they have a hard time getting their produce into Israel.

Sending 7000 tons into Syria is a life-saving way for them to earn a bit of money.

Israel has repeatedly rejected Syria's peace overtures, and states that the stolen Golan will remain in Israeli hands. Just days ago the Syrians living under Israeli occupation held a demonstration, demanding the return of their land to Syria. Their demonstration marks 25 years since Israel illegally annexed the land - not even the US recognises Israel's claim on the Golan. The land was snatched in 1967.

Labels: Israel, Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Trade

Rime Allaf deconstructs an article on the Golan Heights.

Unlike most posts on the blogosphere, this is not simply a comment on something in the mainstream media, this is itself original journalism, and something we are desperately in need of in Syria.

She looks at how Israel is de-Syrianising the Golan Heights to make its return to Syria impossible, and out of bounds of any future peace talks.

Well worth a read.

Labels: Israel, Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights