The Golan

Today we visited The Golan, which is the disputed territory between Syria and Israel. Syria has left all of the destruction of the city of Quneitra intact, as a reminder of how they were wronged by Israel. The director of public relations gave us a tour of the site and told us the history of the area and why it has been so hard to settle the argument. Later in the day we had a discussion about how we think the situation should be handled. Later, we drove to the top of a mountain to overlook the city of Damascus. On a lighter note, tonight we went out for ice cream at this famous place in the market. I ate that ice cream shamelessly, let me tell you.

A Bird's Eye View of Damascus

1. The Golan: I think we had a very interesting discussion about the Golan. I sort of went into it expecting that we would come out with some sort of unified opinion, but I was really wrong. Some people felt strongly that Syria was justified in leaving the area destroyed, because they don’t have the military capability to counter Israel so it’s essentially their only way of making a statement. Other people felt that it was very unprogressive and stagnant to leave the area like that, and that they should put the land to use and move on. People made a lot of good points and it was a really interesting discussion.

2. Propaganda: We used the word “propaganda” A LOT today. Maybe too much. The dictionary definition is “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.” I feel like under this definition, almost anything a person says or writes could be considered propaganda, because the purpose of speaking is to put your thoughts into someone else’s head for consideration. When we were at The Golan, they certainly were showing us sites that would make us upset by Israel, but that’s because they’re upset by Israel. Of course they’re not going to say “Well, we’re not very happy about what Israel did to us, but I’m sure from their perspective it was the right decision.” I just think that “propaganda” has such a negative connotation, and I feel uncomfortable throwing the word around too much.

3. Egypt v. Syria: I expected Syria to be more conservative than Egypt, but I guess that was a very preconceived notion because I really don’t know all that much about Syria. Anyways, I feel like the people here are less conservative than people in Egypt were. Then again, maybe it’s just that people here don’t seem to interact with tourists as much as people in Egypt did. Maybe I noticed the conservatively dressed people in Egypt because there were people constantly reminding me that I was dressed differently than they were.