Dozens of people demonstrated on Friday in front of the Golan headquarters against the IDF’s plan to build a military facility on the Ein Pith natural and heritage site in the Golan Heights.
According to plans promoted by the Defense Ministry and the IDF, a training facility will be built in the area instead.
Environmental and Nature Protection personnel from around the country, as well as Golan Heights residents, protested and demanded that the plans be scrapped. The first demonstration opposing it was held on Friday and environmental activists noted their intention to continue working to save Ein Pith.
Ein Pith’s history from the 17th century to the 1960s
Ein Pith, located on the northern slopes of the Golan Heights, was a village of Syrians of Alawite origins, which was one of several villages established in the area at the beginning of the 17th century.
In the early 1960s, about 1,500 residents lived in the village. Until 1967, the area was also used by the Syrian army. During the Six-Day War, the village was captured by the 8th Armored Brigade and its residents fled to Syria.
View of the Katzrin stream on a stormy winter day in the northern town of Katzrin, Golan Heights, on February 1, 2023. (credit: MICHAEL GILADI/FLASH90)The Council for Conservation of Heritage Sites in Israel stated that despite the many damages the complex has suffered over the years, it still remains a cultural landscape, which includes the remains of residential buildings and agricultural facilities, historic roads, a spring house, agricultural fences, wells and orchards.
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