Quneitra

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This article is about a city in Syria. For a city in Morocco, see Kenitra.
القنيطرة
al Qunaytirah'
Quneitra in September 2001
General Information
Country: Syria
Governorate: Quneitra
Area code: 43
Quneitra in Syria
Quneitra is located in Syria
Quneitra
Quneitra
Quneitra (Syria)
Governor Nawaf al-Fares
Population
Population: n/a
Geography
Location: 33° 07' N, 35° 49'E
Elevation: 942 m

Quneitra (also Al Qunaytirah', Qunaitira, or Kuneitra) (Arabic: القنيطرة) is the largely destroyed and abandoned capital of the Quneitra Governorate in south-western Syria. It is situated in a high valley in the Golan Heights at an altitude of slightly less than 1000 metres above sea level. Quneitra was founded in the Ottoman era as a way station on the caravan route to Damascus.

On 10 June 1967, the last day of the Six-Day War, Quneitra came under Israeli control . It was briefly recaptured by Syria during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, but Israel regained control in its subsequent counter-offensive. The city was almost completely destroyed before the Israeli withdrawal in June 1974. It now lies in the demilitarized United Nations Disengagement Observer Force Zone (UNDOF) between Syria and Israel, a short distance from the de facto border between the two countries. The government of Syria has been criticized for not rebuilding Quneitra, but instead keeping it in a destroyed state.[1]

Political status

Quneitra is the capital of the eponymous Quneitra Governorate, a district of southwestern Syria that officially includes the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan Heights. The city of Quneitra is just inside the part of the Golan Heights that is controlled by Syria.[2] The political legal status of the Golan Heights area is discussed in International law and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Geography and demographics

Quneitra is situated in a high valley in the Golan Heights at an altitude of 1010 m (3313 ft) above sea level.[3] It is overshadowed to the west by the Israeli-held portion of the Golan Heights and the peak of Har Bental. The surrounding area is dominated by ancient volcanic lava flows interspersed by a number of dormant volcanic cones which rise some 150-200 m (500-700 ft) above the surrounding plain. The volcanic hills of the region have played a key role as observation points and natural firing positions in the conflicts over the region, most notably in the Yom Kipper war.[4] In more peaceful times, the fertile volcanic soil has supported agricultural activities such as wheat growing and pastoralism.[3]

The city's position on an important trade route gave it a varied population for much of its history. By the start of the 20th century it was dominated by Muslim Circassians from the Caucasus. Its population grew to some 20,000 people, mostly Arabs, following Syrian independence.[2] After its abandonment in 1967 and subsequent destruction, its population was dispersed to other parts of Syria. It remains abandoned apart from a residual Syrian security presence.

History

Early history

The surrounding area has been inhabited for millennia. Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers are thought to have lived there, as evidenced by the discovery of Levallois and Mousterian flint tools in the vicinity.[5] A settlement was established at least as early as Roman and Byzantine times, serving as a stop on the road from Damascus to western Palestine. Saint Paul is said to have passed through the settlement on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus. The site of the Conversion of Paul was traditionally identified with the small village of Kokab, north-east of Quneitra, on the road to Damascus.[6]

The modern city grew around the nucleus of an Ottoman caravanserai, which was built using the stones of the ruined ancient settlement.[7] By the 20th century Quneitra had become the administrative centre for the Golan region and a centre of settlement for Muslim Circassians from the Caucasus. When the modern states of Syria and Israel gained their independence from France and Britain respectively after the Second World War, Quneitra gained a new strategic significance as a key road junction some 40 miles (64 km) from the border. It became a prosperous market town and military garrison with its population tripling to over 20,000 people, predominately Arabs.[2]

1967–74

The Israeli capture of Quneitra occurred in chaotic circumstances on 10 June 1967, the last day of the Six-Day War. Israeli forces advancing towards the city from the north-west prompted Syrian troops to deploy north of the city, under heavy bombardment, to defend the road to Damascus. At 8:45 a.m., Syrian radio mistakenly broadcast an announcement that the city had fallen. Panicked by the news, the Syrian Army's redeployment turned into a chaotic retreat along the Damascus road. Although a correction was broadcast two hours later, the Israelis took full advantage of the confusion to seize Quneitra for real.[8] An armoured brigade under Major General Albert Mendler entered Quneitra at 2:30 p.m. and found the city deserted and strewn with abandoned military equipment. One of the Israeli commanders later commented:

We arrived almost without hindrance to the gates of Quneitra ... All around us there were huge quantities of booty. Everything was in working order. Tanks with their engines still running, communication equipment still in operation had been abandoned. We captured Quneitra without a fight.[9]

A ceasefire was agreed later in the afternoon, leaving Quneitra under Israeli control. In the aftermath of the city's conquest, it was extensively looted. The United Nations Special Representative Nils-Goran Gussing visited it in July and reported that "nearly every shop and every house seemed to have been broken into and looted", and some buildings had been set on fire after they had been stripped. Although Israeli spokesmen told Gussing that Quneitra had actually been looted by the withdrawing Syrians, the UN representative viewed this as unlikely given the extremely short space of time between the false radio announcement and the fall of the city a few hours later. He concluded that "responsibility for this extensive looting of the town of Quneitra lay to a great extent with the Israeli forces."[10] The deserted city remained in Israeli hands for the next six years.

During the first couple of days of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Quneitra was briefly recaptured by the Syrians before they were repulsed in an Israeli counter-offensive.[11] The city remained under Israeli control until early June 1974, when it was returned to Syrian civilian control following the signature of a United States–brokered disengagement agreement signed on 31 May 1974. The surrender of Quneitra was controversial, with Israeli settlers[12] and the Likud and National Religious Party opposing it[13] and even establishing a settlement on its outskirts for a brief period (see Keshet). The agreement provided that the city was to be repopulated to serve as evidence of peaceful Syrian intentions, by creating a hostage to Syrian good behaviour which would encourage the Israelis to pull back further.[14] The disengagement went into force on 6 June 1974.[15] On 26 June, the Syrian president Hafez al-Assad travelled to Quneitra, where he pledged to rebuild the city and reclaim the rest of the occupied territories.[16]

Destruction of the city

Destroyed building in Quneitra

Following the Israeli withdrawal, it emerged that much of Quneitra had been razed to the ground. Western reporters accompanied Syrian refugees returning to the city in early July 1974 and described what they saw on the ground. Time magazine's correspondent reported that "Most of its buildings are knocked flat, as though by dynamite, or pockmarked by shellfire."[17] Le Monde's Syria correspondent, in a report for The Times, gave a detailed eyewitness description of the destruction:

Today the city is unrecognisable. The houses with their roofs lying on the ground look like gravestones. Part of the rubble is covered with fresh earth furrowed by bulldozer tracks. Everywhere there are fragments of furniture, discarded kitchen utensils, Hebrew newspapers dating from the first week of June; here a ripped-up mattress, there the springs of an old sofa. On the few sections of wall still standing, Hebrew inscriptions proclaim: "There'll be another round"; "You want Quneitra, you'll have it destroyed."[18]

The city had reportedly been systematically stripped by the Israeli forces,[2] with anything movable being removed and sold to Israeli contractors. The empty buildings were subsequently pulled apart with tractors and bulldozers.[19] To this day, the flattened buildings still lie where they fell. The Rough Guide to Syria describes the current appearance of the city: "The first sight of the flattened houses on Quneitra's outskirts is the most dramatic; many of the unscathed roofs simply lie on top of a mass of rubble, leaving the impression of a building that has imploded."[8] Speculating on the possible reasons for the razing of the city, The Times' correspondent noted in 1974 that "the Israeli evacuation of Quneitra took place soon after the return of Israeli prisoners of war from Damascus with many stories of torture."[18]

Israel asserted that most of the damage had been caused in the two wars and during the artillery duels in between.[20] Several reports from before the withdrawal did refer to the city as "ruined" and "shell-scarred".[21][22][23] The Times' correspondent saw the city for himself on 6 May, a month before the Israeli withdrawal, and described it as being "in ruins and deserted after seven years of war and dereliction. It looks like a wild west city struck by an earthquake and if the Syrians get it back they will face a major feat of reconstruction. Nearly every building is heavily damaged and scores have collapsed."[12]

Direct evidence of the city's condition was provided when it was filmed on 12 May 1974 by a British television news team which included the veteran journalist Peter Snow, who was reporting for Independent Television News on the disengagement negotiations. His report was broadcast on ITN's News at Ten programme. According to The Times' correspondent Edward Mortimer, "viewers were thus afforded a panoramic view of the city, which had stood almost completely empty since the Syrian army evacuated it in 1967. It could be seen that many of the buildings were damaged, but most of them were still standing." After it was handed over, "very few buildings were left standing. Most of those destroyed did not present the jagged outline and random heaps of rubble usually produced by artillery or aerial bombardment. The roofs lay flat on the ground, 'pancaked' in a manner which I am told can only be achieved by systematic dynamiting of the support walls inside." Mortimer concluded that the footage "establishes beyond reasonable doubt that much of the destruction took place after May 12, 1974—at a time when there was no fighting anywhere near Kuneitra."[24]

The United Nations established a Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories, which concluded that Israeli forces had deliberately destroyed the city prior to their withdrawal. The report's conclusions were subsequently adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. It passed a resolution on 29 November 1974 describing the destruction of Quneitra as "a grave breach of the [Fourth] Geneva Convention" and "condemn[ing] Israel for such acts".[25] The United Nations Commission on Human Rights also voted to condemn the "deliberate destruction and devastation" of Quneitra in a resolution of 22 February 1975, by a margin of 22 votes to one (the United States) with nine abstentions.[26]

The city today

Quneitra hospital. The sign reads: "Golan Hospital. Destructed by the Zionists and changed it to firing target" [sic]

Quneitra plays an important part in Syrian public relations activities. It has often been used as a stop for foreign VIPs, ranging from the Soviet foreign minister Alexei Kosygin in June 1976[27] to Pope John Paul II in May 2001.[28] In violation of the provisions of the 1974 disengagement agreement, Quneitra has not been repopulated. Only a handful of families now live in the town, making a living by providing services for the United Nations troops patrolling the demilitarized zone.[29] According to The Times, "the carefully preserved ruined city has become a pilgrimage site for a generation of Syrians."[30]

The city can be visited by tourists, but a permit is required and sight-seeing is supervised by a military guide. The principal sights on the standard tour are the remains of Quneitra's hospital, mosque and Greek Orthodox church. A "Liberated Quneitra Museum", displaying artifacts from the city's ancient and medieval past, is housed in the former Ottoman caravanserai in the city centre. The western edge of the city marks the start of "no-man's land" beyond which lies Israeli-controlled territory. Because the border is closed, it is not possible to visit Quneitra from Israel.[31]

See also

External links

Further reading

  • Goren-Inbar, N., and Paul Goldberg. Quneitra: A Mousterian Site on the Golan Heights. Publications of the Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 31. [Jerusalem]: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1990.

References

  1. ^ Abraham Rabinovich. The Yom Kippur War, 492
  2. ^ a b c d "Qunaytirah, Al-." Encyclopædia Britannica. 1993 Cite error: The named reference "eb" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Geoffrey William Bromiley. "Golan", in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: E-J, p. 520. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1994. ISBN 0802837824
  4. ^ Simon Dunstan. The Yom Kippur War 1973: The Sinai, p. 9. Osprey Publishing, 2003. ISBN 1841762202
  5. ^ Takeru Akazawa, Kenichi Aoki, Ofer Bar-Yosef, Neanderthals and Modern Humans in Western Asia, p. 154. Springer, 1998. ISBN 0306459248
  6. ^ Ivan Mannheim, "Biblical Damascus", in Syria & Lebanon Handbook, p. 100. 2001, Footprint Travel Guides. ISBN 1900949903
  7. ^ Paul Virgil McCracken Flesher, Dan Urman, Ancient Synagogues: historical analysis and archaeological discovery, p. 394. Brill Academic Publishers, 1995. ISBN 9004112545
  8. ^ a b Andrew Beattie, Timothy Pepper, The Rough Guide to Syria 2nd edition, p. 146. Rough Guides, 2001. ISBN 1858287189
  9. ^ Jeremy Bowen, Six Days: How the 1967 War Shaped the Middle East, p. 304. Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2003. ISBN 0743230957
  10. ^ Bowen, ibid.
  11. ^ "Tables turned on Arabs, Israel general says". The Times, 9 October 1973, p. 8
  12. ^ a b "Settlers insist Israel keeps Golan". The Times, 7 May 1974, p. 6
  13. ^ "Criticism in Israel over peace pact's concessions to Syria". The Times, 30 May 1974, p. 7
  14. ^ Michael Mandelbaum, The Fate of Nations: The Search for National Security in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, p. 316. Cambridge University Press, 1988. ISBN 052135790X
  15. ^ "Israel-Syrian disengagement goes into effect today after detailed plan is signed in Geneva". The Times, 6 June 1974, p. 6
  16. ^ "Egypt offers air force to defend Lebanon". The Times, 26 June 1974, p. 6
  17. ^ "Returning to Quneitra." Time, 8 July 1974
  18. ^ a b "Golan's capital turns into heap of stones". The Times, 10 July 1974, p. 8
  19. ^ Lara Dunston, Terry Carter, Andrew Humphreys. Syria & Lebanon, p. 129. Lonely Planet, 2004. ISBN 1864503335
  20. ^ "Israel fears Russian incitement of Arabs". The Times, 8 September 1975
  21. ^ "Syrian 160mm mortar shells were falling on the northern side of the city, a shell-scarred ghost city since its capture by the Israelis in 1967". "Debris of two armies litters Damascus road". The Times, 5 October 1973
  22. ^ "Kuneitra, the ruined capital of the Heights". "Village life on the wild frontier of the Golan". The Times, 5 April 1974
  23. ^ "The officer conceded that the ruined city itself was of no military importance to Israel." "Israel sees no end to Golan battle". The Times, 2 May 1974.
  24. ^ "A question mark over the death of a city." The Times, 17 February 1975, p. 12
  25. ^ "Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories", UNGA Resolution 3240, 29 November 1974"
  26. ^ "Human Rights Commission condemns Israel". The Times, 22 February 1975
  27. ^ "Syrians offered Soviet support by Mr Kosygin". The Times, 4 June 1976, p. 6
  28. ^ "Pope visits Golan Heights". BBC News, 7 May 2001
  29. ^ "Pope prays for peace in war-torn Syrian town", News Letter (Belfast); May 8, 2001; p. 17
  30. ^ "Silence of Syria's forgotten siege", The Times; May 8, 2001; p. 15
  31. ^ Ivan Mannheim, Syria & Lebanon Handbook, p. 142. 2001, Footprint Travel Guides. ISBN 1900949903

33°07′32″N 35°49′26″E / 33.12556°N 35.82389°E / 33.12556; 35.82389

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