Israeli tanks take position along the border with Syria in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on Dec. 8, 2024, following the fall of the Bashar Assad regime. (Credit: Jalaa Marey/AFP)
The scene could have taken place in the occupied West Bank. Instead, it unfolded in Syria, in the predominantly Druze village of Hader, in the southern province of Quneitra, just a few kilometers from the 1974 cease-fire line with the Golan Heights, occupied and later annexed by Israel.In a video released last April, around 40 Israeli activists who entered the village raised Israeli flags on the roof of a building and chanted in support of settling southern Syria, while Israeli soldiers looked on.Known as the “Bashan Pioneers” (“Habocherim BaBashan” in Hebrew, referring to the biblical name for the mountainous region), the Israeli settler group has recently returned to the spotlight.Within days, the group entered Syria’s southern Daraa province before crossing into Syrian territory again on July 9 through Mount Hermon, where its members...
The scene could have taken place in the occupied West Bank. Instead, it unfolded in Syria, in the predominantly Druze village of Hader, in the southern province of Quneitra, just a few kilometers from the 1974 cease-fire line with the Golan Heights, occupied and later annexed by Israel.In a video released last April, around 40 Israeli activists who entered the village raised Israeli flags on the roof of a building and chanted in support of settling southern Syria, while Israeli soldiers looked on.Known as the “Bashan Pioneers” (“Habocherim BaBashan” in Hebrew, referring to the biblical name for the mountainous region), the Israeli settler group has recently returned to the spotlight.Within days, the group entered Syria’s southern Daraa province before crossing into Syrian territory again on July 9 through Mount Hermon, where...
