Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Damascus, SANA- The feverish attempts of the Israeli occupation entity, since its occupation of the Syrian Arab Golan in June 1967, have never succeeded in finding any evidence on their allegations for any existence on this precious area of the homeland.
Since the first months of the occupation, the authorities of this entity have conducted archaeological surveys and excavations in the Golan in an effort to falsify historic facts, and subsequently loot, steal and sell Syrian antiquities.
Dr. Camellia Abu Jabal, a professor at Damascus University, Department of History, in a scientific seminar entitled “Zionist violations of the antiquities of the occupied Golan and attempts to distort the Arab cultural heritage in it,” states that the so-called Antiquities’ Authority in the occupation entity, in addition to various Zionist institutions, have sought to distort and falsify the history and antiquities of the occupied Syrian Arab Golan.
The Professor refers to articles published by the occupation entity’s newspapers about the thefts of the Golan antiquities since the first months of its occupation, where Moshe Dayan, the Israeli Minister of War at the time, stole artifacts from sites in al-Fakhoura village in the center of the Golan.
According to Dr. Abu Jabal, the systematic violations of the Israeli occupation against the antiquities of the occupied Golan began in 1968 through excavation work in the town of Banias, north of the Golan.
Abu Jabal, daughter of the town of Majdal Shams, affirms that all those Israeli attempts have never succeeded in changing the identity of the Syrian Arab Golan, despite the discoveries that the occupation authorities have found in the archaeological sites in the Golan that reach more than 200 sites.
The occupation authorities seek to demolish more than 110 Syrian villages, including standing archeological places, removing cultural and humanitarian landmarks and monuments.
Archaeological sites in the occupied Golan were exposed to big damage as occupation forces use them to carry out maneuvers and use ammunition near the sites, in addition to replacing their Arabic names with Hebrew ones with the aim of hiding landscapes and historical evidences, including hills of Abu Nada, Al-Aram and Sheikha, as Abu Jabal noted.
The Professor reveals that in opposite to the systematic destruction of most Syrian archaeological sites, the occupation authorities kept other sites for tourism, like the site of Rajm al-Hari, in addition to using stones from archaeological sites to build military facilitaties in the occupied Golan.
Abu Jabal said that the number of archeological expeditions affiliated to the occupation in Golan surpassed 15, disrupted over several regions and villages, like Wadi al-Hariri and Tal al-Barouk.
Hybah / Nisreen / Mazen