A London journalist has exposed a Syrian document revealing what Israel has claimed: Syria was behind the May 15 "Nakba Day" march on the Golan Heights and authorized ”shots in the air".
Michael Weiss, who blogs for the London Telegraph and monitors British media coverage of the Middle East, wrote that he was forwarded the document, which included the official government emblem and was dated May 14, 2011.
The following day, several hundred Syrians marched on the border, and approximately 200 of them infiltrated into the nearby Druze village of Majdal Shams in Israel. Thirteen people were killed in the incident, and Israel charged that Syrian President Bashar Assad was trying to divert world attention from his brutal suppression of peaceful protests against his regime.
Weiss said that the document proves the charge. It summarizes a meeting of intelligence and military officers near the Israeli border. He wrote, “I have good reason to believe [the document] is absolutely genuine – appears to represent the first piece of regime-created evidence that Assad has cynically tried to manipulate Western and Arabic media during three-month Syrian uprising.
The document stated, “All security, military, and contingent units in the province, Ain-el-Tina and the old al-Qunaitera are hereby ordered to grant permission of passage to all twenty vehicles (47 passenger capacity) with the attached plate numbers that are scheduled to arrive at ten in the morning on Sunday May 15, 2011 without being questioned or stopped until it reaches our frontier defense locations.
“Permission is hereby granted allowing approaching crowds to cross the cease fire line (with Israel) towards the occupied Majdal-Shamms, and to further allow them to engage physically with each other in front of United Nations agents and offices. Furthermore, there is no objection if a few shots are fired in the air.
“Captain Samer Shahin from the military intelligence division is hereby appointed to the leadership of the group assigned to break-in and infiltrate deep into the occupied Syrian Golan Heights with a specified pathway to avoid land mines.
“It is essential to ensure that no one carries military identification or a weapon as they enter with a strict emphasis on the peaceful and spontaneous nature of the protest.”
The document concluded, “May you be the source of prosperity for the nation and the party,” and it was signed by Dr. Khalil Mash-hadiya, Mayor of Al-Qunaitera.