Quneitra

Today we took a half-day trip to Quneitra, a town on the Syrian-Israeli border in the Golan, an hour southwest of Damascus. Israel withdrew from the town in 1973 pursuant to the ceasefire following the October war, evicting all of its residents and then leveling the town. Afterwards, Syria refused to let the residents rebuild their homes and move back in, keeping the town as a war monument and evidence of Israeli aggression. Today, it stands as Israel left it, virtually all of its buildings demolished with only three families living there, according to the security officer who took us on a tour.

Jebel al-Sheikh (Mt. Hermon) as seen out of our car window on the way to Quneitra:



To get to Quneitra, we first had to get official permission from the government, which involved going to a Ministry of the Interior office in Malki, handing our passports off, and waiting 20 minutes for them to bring us back a slip allowing us entry into "liberated Quneitra."

Once there, the security officer took us on a relatively short tour of the town. Our first stop was the Golan Hospital, the "highlight" of the day. It embodies what Syria wants to show the world, that Israel would go and do what you see below to a hospital. It also had great views out over Quneitra and towards the Golan hills that currently lie inside Israel:







From the top of the Golan Hospital, flattened buildings in the foreground with Israel behind:





After the hospital we went to a destroyed church and then a mosque with a visit to the border in between. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was quite a sight to see the Syrian flag followed by the UN and Israeli flags all in a row, flying not more than ten to twenty meters away from each other.

The area around Quneitra was beautiful, much lusher than around Damascus, and there were red, purple, and yellow wildflowers everywhere. I would have liked to just wander around, but Syria still considers the area sensitive. Once we finished at the mosque the security officer ushered us out of the town and our driver said we couldn't stop in any of the Druze villages on the way back because we needed official permission. That and the live mines make exploring in and around Quneitra difficult and dangerous.

Rachel and Natalie at the mosque:



An example of the wildflowers blanketing the area around Quneitra:



Our security officer "tour guide" with Natalie and Rachel: