Israel: The Holy Land and Timeless Cultures

10/5/2023 - Jeep Tour, Yom Kippur War, Valley of the Tears Viewpoint, and Druz Village

In retrospect, this sculpture just outside the Ein Zivan, a kibbutz located in Golan Heights, best summarizes what continues to be an ongoing dispute between Israel and Syria over the ownership of the Golan Heights and the cultural status of the Arab Druze ethnic group that lives in these lands.

 

The eagle is a symbol or analogy and usually represents speed, strength, security, and care. In Exodus 19:4 and Deuteronomy 32:11, the eagle represents God and his loving care towards Israel. The serpent was a symbol of evil power and chaos from the underworld, as well as a symbol of fertility, life, healing, and rebirth. 

We boarded off-road jeeps for an excursion through Golan Heights to learn about the area’s history. We visited the Valley of Tears Memorial, which overlooks the 1973 Yom Kippur War site, a four-day major battle in which Syrian forces launched a surprise attack on Israel during the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, The Day of Atonement.

The legal status of this region and the citizenship of 40,000 residents (primarily members of the Druze religious community) have remained disputed since the Six-Day War of 1967. The government formally applied Israeli law to Golan Heights in 1981, but the UN rejected its authority.

After the Ottoman Empire broke up in the early 1920s, the Druze lived in several countries. They are a unique religious and ethnic group whose tradition dates back to the 11th century and incorporates elements of Islam, Hinduism, and classical Greek philosophy.

Today, 1 million-plus members of this community live primarily in Syria and Lebanon. They are a close-knit community active in public life, comprising roughly 2% of the country’s population in the northern regions of Galilee, Carmel, and the Golan Heights.

Israeli Druze rarely marry across religious lines nor accept converts. Their religion is seclusive, closed to outsiders since 1044. Today’s population descended directly from its 11th-century followers and adherents. They believe that anyone who wanted to join had a chance to do so in the first generation after the religion began and that everyone alive today is reincarnated from a previous generation. Therefore, they concluded that people today already had their chance to join centuries ago, and proselytizing is not allowed under Druze law.