'Forever'

Israeli Settlers Claim Golan Heights 'Forever'

KATZRIN, Golan Heights (AFP) – A light drizzle falls on visitors watching stunning views of the Golan unfold before them as settlers go all out to promote the territory Israel seized from Syria in war in 1967.
The scene takes place inside a specially designed cinema where huge fans and mist-spraying sprinklers add a touch of reality to the "Magic of the Golan" movie depicting the spectacular scenery that attracts tourists and new settlers to the occupied region.
The movie, shown at a mall in Katzrin, the largest city in the Golan, is popular with visitors to the strategic plateau that overlooks Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
Representatives of the 20,000 Israeli settlers in the Golan Heights hope the film will do its bit to further boost tourism and bring in more residents, which they believe will give them more clout in arguing the lush region should never be returned to Syria.
"As far as I'm concerned, the Golan is mine, it's ours. We created it," says Ramona Bar Lev, spokeswoman for the Golan Residents Committee.
"Our problem is how to convince the government and the Knesset (parliament) to keep the Golan part of Israel," she says.
She admits she is worried about the future, even though the new Israeli government of hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leans heavily to the right.
Israel -- technically still at war with Syria since 1948 -- occupied the Golan in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community.
More than 18,000 Syrians, mostly Druze, an offshoot of Islam, are left from the Golan's original population of 150,000. LinkHere