Journalists toured historic and modern sites of the Golan on Sunday, including the town of Katzrin, headed by this year’s winner of a prestigious prize for his pioneering efforts in the Golan. The head of Katzrin’s local council, Sammy Bar-Lev, will be awarded the Moskowitz Prize for Zionism in recognition of his efforts over the last 41 years in strengthening Jewish settlement of the Golan Heights.
Immediately after the Yom Kippur war, Bar Lev moved to the Golan to settle the area. In 1980, after Katzrin became the Golan's first city, Bar-Lev was elected its first council head, a position he holds until today.
Bar-Lev, who has spent 32 out of his 41 years in the Golan in Katzrin, told reporters, “I’m proud of the city and the community that we’ve built together.” Katzrin’s mayor will be awarded $50,000 by the Moskowitz Prize Committee for his public and political struggles for the Golan, as well as his spearheading a campaign to teach the Israeli public that the Golan is an integral part of the State of Israel.
Prior to the June 1967 Six Day War, the Golan was controlled by Syria, which used its strategic vantage point for launching sites of attacks onto Israel. Israel’s Golan Heights Law of 1981 applied “laws, jurisdiction and administration” to the Golan Heights, thus officially annexing it as part of the State of Israel’s borders. However, the international community has not recognized Israel’s sovereignty there.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has demanded Israel’s withdrawal from the Golan as a prerequisite to peace. In August 2007, Binyamin Netanyahu said that the Golan would remain forever Israeli. “I remember the Golan Heights without Katzrin, and suddenly we see a thriving city in the land of Israel. A gem of the Second Temple era has been revived anew,” said Netanyahu, who made his comments on the 30th anniversary of Katzrin. “This place will remain part of the State of Israel forever, but it will be much bigger,” said the current Prime Minister.
Were Netanyahu’s policies regarding the Golan to change, at least one soldier would have a hard time coping with uprooting Jews from their homes. “It’s harder to uproot your own brother from his home than to fight against the enemy,” stated Avichai, a Golani Brigade soldier who participated in the expulsion of Jews from Gaza in 2006. Avichai hopes that he will never have to replay the scenario in the Golan. Much more than its emotional attachment, Avichai says Israel’s security would be endangered without the Golan. “Without Golan, there’s no Israel,” the soldier explained the Golan’s strategic importance.
In honor of the prize, which will be awarded on Jerusalem Day, the group of journalists continued to Katzrin’s ancient synagogue, which dates back some 1,500 years. Located north of Lake Kinneret, south of Mount Hermon, and west of the Syrian border, Katzrin was a flourishing Jewish village in the times of the Mishna. Although it was destroyed in an 8th-century earthquake, foundations of ancient homes and the ancient synagogue have been partially reconstructed. Many of the archaeological finds are displayed in the city's Museum of Golan Antiquities.
Modern-day Katzrin is the Golan’s largest town, which was resettled in 1977 after the Israeli government promoted the settling of Golan. Boasting a population of over 6,400 residents, Katzrin has a kosher winery and a mineral water plant. Katzrin’s Solarit Doral power station, Israel’s largest solar power plant, was connected to the country’s electric grid this past December, and is expected to provide 85,000 KWH a year.
The Moskowitz Prize for Zionism was established by Dr. Irving and Cherna Moskowitz as an expression of support for people who put Zionism into action in today's Israeli society, acting for the benefit of the common good in order to ensure the strength and resilience of the national Jewish homeland. Now in its second year, the Moskowitz Prize will be awarding Sammy Bar-Lev for his work as head of Katzrin’s local council, Noam Arnon for his leadership role in Hevron’s Jewish community, and Ronit Shukar for her establishment of the village of Givat Achiya and its olive manufacturing plant.