Quneitra was once a bustling
town in the Golan
Heights and
southwestern Syria's
administrative
capital with a
population of
37,000. The word
'Quneitra' derives
from Qantara, or
'bridge', between
Syria, Lebanon,
Jordan, and
Palestine. Known for
its abundant water
resources, it has
been continuously
inhabited since the
Stone Age. Over the
millennia, many
peoples, including
Arameans, Assyrians,
Caldeans, Persians,
Greeks, and Arabs
have occupied it.
In
1967, during the
six-day war, Israel
captured Quneitra.
It then became a
site of many battles
but, except for a
brief interlude,
remained in Israeli
hands until 1974,
when a UN-brokered
agreement led to an
Israeli pullback.
Before withdrawing,
however, Quneitra
was evacuated and
systematically
destroyed by the
Israeli army (based
on eyewitness
accounts; UN General
Assembly resolution
3240 in 1974
condemned Israel's
role in its
destruction. Israel
disputes this
account). Many
prominent Western
reporters, agreeing
with the UN and
Syrian version of
events, saw this as
nothing short of an
act of wanton
brutality — a whole
town methodically
ransacked,
dynamited, and
bulldozed.
Quneitra lies
undisturbed ever
since, a ghost town
riddled with land
mines, an open-air
museum of
Middle-Eastern wars
(Syria now shows it
off as proof of
Israeli malice).
Church domes and
minarets, blackened
and broken, rise
above the wasteland.
Do these sights, I
wondered, ever
infuriate native
sons into seeking
compensation in
kind? Behind the
town, a barbed-wire
fence marks the
border with the
Israeli occupied
Golan Heights.
Quneitra now falls within the
UN-patrolled
demilitarized zone.
A UN peacekeeper
accompanies all
visitors to Quneitra
who must first
obtain a visitation
permit from the
Syrian government. Here is some video footage from
my visit on a
rain-drenched
afternoon in Feb
2001, set to the music of Fairuz Wahdon (and some photos).
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