MK Barakeh
Gil Yohanan
Buqaata. Belongs to Syria?
Photo: Shaul Golan
Barakeh says Druze village belongs to Syria
Responding to Golan Heights village's request to be included in list of confrontation line communities, Arab MK says village located on occupied Syrian soil, will eventually be returned to its homeland, Syria
A Druze village in the Golan Heights cannot be considered a confrontation line community because it cannot be in confrontation with its motherland, Syria, a Knesset member recently wrote to the village chairman.
Hadash chairman, MK Mohamed Barakeh, sent a letter to the chairman of the Buqaata village local council, in response to the latter's request that the Knesset Finance Committee include the village in the list of confrontation line communities.
In the letter, Barakeh said he wished to clarify to the village heads his party's stance on the issue. "First of all we stress that the village of Buqaata is an occupied Syrian village located in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Secondly, the village can never be in confrontation with its motherland, Syria, to which it will eventually return," Barakeh wrote.
"We consider Buqaata to be in confrontation with the occupation, which should be driven out of Syrian soil. We hope never to see Buqaata's residents taking sides with the occupation against their people and homeland," he added.
The Arab MK stated that Hadash plans to vote against the village's request in the Finance Committee's meeting.
The village head, Hani Jahaveh, told Ynet: "I think that MK Barakeh is overreacting in his response. We did not ask (the committee) to annex the Golan Heights and we do not deal with politics. The Finance Committee has added 23 communities to the list of confrontation line communities in February, and we were not included, unlike Majd al-Shams for instance."
Jahaveh said that in his view, the entire region should be defined as a frontier area. "We do not set the borders, we serve the public," he said.
