Despite Syrian conflict, school is back
Photo: Avihu Shapira
Calm in the Golan: 'We're more concerned when it snows'
Continued spillover of Syrian conflict into Israel does not disturb Golan Heights residents; at end of Passover vacation, with return of children to school, parents seem calm: 'Security situation, nonsense'
Despite the canons roaring, local residents are relaxed: After another day of cross border gunfire
from the Syrian
border, on Wednesday students from various educational institutes across the Golan Heights returned to their studies as the Passover
break came to a conclusion.
In a tour of the area, it seems that the security incidents of the last 24-hours – which included gun fire and a mortar rocket from the Syrian side, and a noisy artillery response by Israeli tanks – did little to influence the northerners' plans.
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Parents and faculty expressed surprise at the media's interest in the toll the security situation is exerting on their lives. "What situation? There is no situation, it's all nonsense," Yael Heitner from Kibbutz Ortal said with a smile.
'When it snows people are more concerned' (Photo: Avihu Shapira)
Heitner, who had just dropped off two of her girls at the Avital School in the northern Golan, added that "the sun keeps on rising, no one here is concerned."
The school is home to 500 students from the first to the eighth grade, as most students are bussed unchaperoned by their parents to the school from different communities and kibbutzim spread across the northern Heights.
"The situation here is calm," the education facility's administrator, Ella Abraham said. "We hear about the events through the media just like everybody else, and no one panics. At most we'll get one or two calls from parents who just want to make sure everything is fine.
"Honestly, when it snows people are much more concerned," she concluded.
Though the Golan Regional Council has renewed its security procedures in light of the conflictual spillover from Syria, most of the Golan residents seem to have experienced little to none of the reported conflict, with the exception of residents from Alonei Habashan, which occasionally experienced the landing of a mortar in the community's territory.
"According to the IDF's directives, life in the Golan continues as usual. The most meaningful change that has occurred is the backup forces (called to the border region) and a change in consciousness.
"The situation along the border is changing and has already changed in comparison to the way it was during the last 40 years; that needs to be taken into account," a region council official said.
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