Independence Day in the Golan

The southwestern Syrian province of Golan is normally off limits to most civilians because parts of it -- the famous Golan Heights -- have been occupied by Israel ever since the Six Day War of 1967. But every year on Independence Day -- which falls on April 17th and which commemorates the end of the 25-year French occupation in 1946 -- the Syrian government lifts these security restrictions, and visitors stream into the Golan.

For many, the event is a chance to go picnicking in one of the lushest parts of the country. But it's also pointedly a reminder that Syria is still under foreign occupation. "My father fought the French to liberate Syria," said Mohammed Anwar Idlibe, who carried a black and white picture of his father -- who died last year of natural causes -- dressed and armed as a fedayeen, or guerilla fighter. "I want to continue the resistence of my father to liberate Golan."

Idlibe was part of a demonstration at Ein Tinah, a small hillside town right next to the minefields and fence-line laid by the Israeli army. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Majdel Shamis, a Syrian town directly across on the Israeli occupied side, organized a demonstration of their own that included four galloping horseman with madly flapping Syrian flags.

Another demonstrator originally from Majdel Shamis, Samahr Hassan, recognized her family on the occupied side. "I told them to wear red and wave a flag," she said. Hassan, 20, left the occupied Golan two years ago with the help of the Red Cross in order to attend Damascus University, where she is a student of English literature. "Syria is our motherland, and it was always my dream to come to Damascus," she said. "But it's so difficult. The Golanese are one people divided by this border. It's like having your foot in one place and your heart in another. "

The day is even more bittersweet for those Golanese who fled their homes in 1967 and have never been allowed back by the Israelis. "I thought I would be back in ten days," said As'ad Abu Zaid, 55, a history teacher from Majdel Shamis who now lives in Damascus. "Even when my two brothers and my father died, I couldn't go to their funerals." Abu Zaid borrowed a pair of binoculars and spotted some of his surviving family members. "Just a few meters away, and I haven't met them for 40 years."

Bemused United Nations observers at Ein Tinah, with Israeli-occupied territory in the background. A UN force patrols a "zone of seperation" between Israeli and Syrian forces.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Ein Tinah