Tour for Journalists in O. Golan

I’lam Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel invites journalists to participate in its upcoming 'Tour for Journalists' to the Occupied Syrian Golan Heights on Saturday, October 23 2010 from 10am – 5pm.

The purpose of the tour is to highlight for journalists the daily social and political challenges that residents of the Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights face.

The tour comes following recent clashes between the local population with police, arrests of local residents on charges of espionage, and clashes between Israeli settlers and Golan Heights residents around the holy site of ‘Maqam Al-Hazouri’.

Programme Schedule:
10:00 - 11:30 Meeting with leading figures of the community to identify challenges in the community dealing with land, Israeli settlements, and communication with the motherland, Syria in the areas of marriage and education

11:30 - 13:00 Meeting with farmers on the problems they face on issues of irrigation, livestock and agricultural crops

13:00 - 13:30 Break

13:30 - 15:00 Meeting with local Golan Heights journalists and the professional challenges they encounter in conducting their work

15:00 - 16:00 Visit to the holy site of ‘Maqam Al-Hazouri’

16:00 Lunch hosted by the people of the Golan Heights

Transport: A chartered bus will leave Nazareth, opposite Hotel Rimonim (also known as Mary’s Well Hotel) at 7:30 am.
Registration Fee: NIS 30

Spaces are limited. For registration and additional details please contact I’lam’s Coordinator of the Arabic Media Project, Samah Bsoul on telephone 04-6001370 or at her email.

Photo of Majdal al-Shams in background courtesy of Bassem Tellawi, AP (Original Caption: Syrians flags are seen aloft, at Ein al-Teineh, southern Damascus, Syria, Saturday Feb. 14, 2009, opposite the occupied village of Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights. Some 2000 Syrians came to this village to join their fellow demonstrators, on the occupied side in Majdal Shams to protest the 27th anniversary of the Israeli annexation of the Heights. The Golan was occupied by Israel in 1967 during the six-day war. In December 1981, Israel unilaterally annexed the Golan thus applying Israeli laws, jurisdiction and administration to anyone living in the region).

Followup:
The tour resulted in a number of articles in local and international media, among them Al-Jazeera, Al-Arab and Golan Times.

Below is a video of Samah Bsoul, Coordinator of the Arabic Media Project and organizer of the Tour, discussing the rationale behind the tour.