Israel allows apples from Golan into rest of Syria

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Truckloads of apples were sent from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to Syria on Tuesday after Israel authorized the export of 8,000 tons to its longtime foe. The first shipments went through the Kuneitra crossing on Tuesday morning, a military spokesman said. "An apple transfer through the demarcation line between the occupied Golan and Syria ... is no everyday event," the International Committee of the Red Cross, which organized the operation, said in a statement.

"The ICRC is acting in its capacity as a neutral intermediary at the request of the farmers of the occupied Golan and with the approval of the Syrian and Israeli authorities," the humanitarian organization said in a statement.

"We hope this operation will help create an environment conducive to raising other humanitarian concerns, for example the fact that family members separated by the demarcation line cannot cross the gates to maintain family ties," said Jean-Jacques Fresard, who heads the ICRC delegation in Syria.

The transfer of the apples is expected to take between six and eight weeks, and marks the fourth time the ICRC has conducted such an operation.

Apple production is a main source of income for Syrian farmers in the Golan, which Israel occupied in the 1967 war and de facto annexed in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community.

More than 18,000 Syrians, mostly Druze, are left from the Golan's original population of 150,000. The vast majority of the Druze have refused to take Israeli citizenship.

Nearly 20,000 Jewish settlers also live in the occupied Syrian territory.