Golan Heights

On Mt Bental

We had come from the Mount of the Beatitudes to Mt Bental in the Golan Heights. From "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God",  to the United Nations   peacekeepers for they are needed here. One short drive can transverse millennia of history as well as a broad spectrum of human emotions.

A gap had appeared in our very tight travel schedule and Gail, our guide, had suggested the possibility of driving to the Golan Heights, not describing specifically what might be seen there. The name itself prompted a unanimous decision to have Salah drive us there. Those of us with sufficient age showing on our faces or wide gaps through our thinning hair, clearly remember the strife surrounding this region.

We arrived at the summit of this old volcano, wondering what exactly we would find to interest us. There was first a few Druids inviting us to taste their fruit. Very good indeed! Then we walked through a short avenue of quaint iron sculptures, pieces of art created by Dutch artist, Joop de Jong. Quaint and humorous, one must agree, but I did hear a few of our party debating whether art accurately described the works.

Steel put to a better use. An imaginative sculpture by artist Joop de Jong.

And then the summit and the peacekeepers. There were two blue-bereted soldiers, representatives of the UN peacekeeping force, stationed here, high overlooking the no-go zone between Israel and Syria. Two service personnel - one from The Netherlands and one from New Zealand. Bless them, for at any time the boredom of their watch could change to the danger of conflicting armies. As it was, the dullness of their watch was brightened by lively conversation and questioning from our interested group.

The peacefulness of this outpost belies the horror of the conflict raging in Syria not so many kilometres away. The sounds of war are heard in the quiet of an approaching evening. The sounds of conflict. A dull thud, a boom, reaches our ears. These are the sounds of exploding anger. To us it is but a sound, but to those whose houses are destroyed, whose livelihoods are shattered, whose eardrums are burst, whose lives are sacrificed, what is it to them? I shall never understand.

A United Nations peacekeeper on Mt Bental.

The empty trenches here on this mount, the silhouetted soldiers, the silent guns, stand as a memorial to a conflict almost half a century ago. This war, known as the Yom Kippur war, began on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur in 1973. On this day armies from various Arab countries surrounding Israel launched attacks, across the Sinai in the south and here at the Golan Height in the north. Here on Mt Bental the monument remembers especially the battle against overwhelming Syrian forces. These initially made advances but were later driven back. Burnt out tanks littered the landscape. Soldiers lay dead and dying.

As with all battles remembered - Waterloo, Anzac Cove, Leningrad, ( the list is long)  - many are sacrificed, benefits are few. I shall never understand.

We were driven back to Tiberias.

Remembering a less peaceful time on Mt Bental.