Golan Heights Radio Documentary

This documentary recorded in July of 2006 (just prior to the war on Lebanon) features audio of the people in the village of Majdal Shams shouting across the minefield (1967 cease fire line) that separates them from their relatives in Syria. This very tangible sound of a border, and occupation, serves as a point from which to tell this story. As you hear the Safhia family, who very graciously allowed me to record their conversation, you hear without interpretation what it is to go on living and coping with the reality of never being able to reunite with your family. Through their bullhorns they give voice to the border through the silence of the minefeild.  Through a documentation of this border, the reality of life in the Golan comes into focus as the boundaries of land and water resources reinforce this basic structure of the occupation that begins at the shouting mountain.  
Listen in Stereo.

Transcript:

On the one side of this deep valley stands nazim with his wife and three children, and on the other, the rest of the Safhia family, standing 600 meters away in Syria. What separates them is a minefield, and an Israeli military road, that constitutes the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria. Since the occupation of the Golan Heights, neither side has been able to see the other, except through binoculars, here in Majdal Shams, or occasionally, with a one way ticket to Syria, never to return.

The families were seperated in 1967 after the 6 days war. In that year, 130 syrian villages were destroyed, following the expulsion of the 131,000 residents from the Golan who now live as refugees outside of damascus, normally a 40 minute drive from majdal shams.
Today, nasir and his family are part of the remaining 18,000 or so syrians still living in the golan heights, and he is one of many who come to see his relatives, here, at the shouting mountain.

audio of little girl shouting through

audio of nasser talking about why people go to the shouting mountain.

nasser works in the restaurant on the Golan side of the valley. When people come from syria to see their family, they first shout the names of their family members, to nasser, who then phones them up in Majdal Shams. If they need a lift, nasser drives them, and if they need a bullhorn, there's one at the restaurant they can borrow.

The people of the Golan Heights have not easily come to terms with this occupation, which continually threatens to become an annexation. The fight for their land, and their farms, is just part of the broader struggle to stay Syrian. I spoke with Salman Briek on the steep slopes of his apple orchard, overlooking the volcanic lake which he can no longer use to irrigate his farm. For the Golan farmers, water is in short supply and heavily taxed, like the rain itself, when it falls.

Having permission to build your house in the valley comes with other advantages as well. The village of Majdal Shams still contains unexploded land mines from 1967, which the Israeli Army refuses to clear. Walking though the village, you find that some areas have been cordoned off with razor wire, and danger signs, but this brings little comfort to parents who have seen the effects of these hidden explosives. Since Israel occupied the golan heights, 16 people have been killed by land mines, and 45 have been disabled. According to a study done by Al-Haq, there are 76 minefields scattered around the golan heights that are known, not including the one that now separates the syrians in golan, from their families in syria.

From the occupied golan heights, I'm Seth Porcello with the www.IMEMC.org