Dozens of activists from the “Halutzei HaBashan" movement arrived early Sunday morning at the security fence along the old border line with Syria, at the foot of Mount Hermon, between the two Druze villages of Majdal Shams on the Israeli side and Khadr on the Syrian side.
Accompanied by a core group of families designated to establish a new community in the area, they took the unusual protest step of chaining themselves to the security fence in an effort to make it more difficult for security forces arriving at the scene to evacuate them. They demanded that members of the diplomatic-security cabinet approve their plans to settle the area.
The timing of the protest was not coincidental: today, the first day of the Hebrew month of Sivan, marks “Golan Day," commemorating 59 years since the Six Day War.
At the scene the activists stated that history has proven that only taking hold of territory and establishing communities removes the enemy’s motivation to harm the State of Israel.
The movement directly called on cabinet ministers, including Yariv Levin, Gila Gamliel, Miri Regev, Bezalel Smotrich, and Itamar Ben Gvir to use the approaching election period to create irreversible facts on the ground. According to the activists, the current conflict has proven beyond doubt that a military presence alone is insufficient to guarantee a long-term hold on the area, and that it must be backed by strong civilian presence.