Syrian Golan women observe hunger strike on Israeli identity card issue
Syria-Israel, Politics, 7/17/1998

Al-Quds daily issued on Thursday in the occupied Arab territories said that 40 Syrian women from the Golan Heights announced on Monday a hunger strike at the house of Sheikh Amin Tarif, a member of the Israeli Knesset, in protest of the Israeli refusal to abrogate the Israeli nationality it imposed on some 400 Syrian inhabitants of the occupied Golan 18 years ago.

The paper said that those 400 persons are boycotted and ostracized by their fellow citizens due to a Fatwa (religious opinion) released by men of religion in the Golan. Objections over the old Israeli decision regarding imposing Israeli identity cards were renewed after Israeli Minister of the Interior Eli Suissa announced last month that Israeli nationality would continue to be imposed on 400 Syrians living in the Golan.

Two months earlier during his visit to the Golan he had promised to study the possibility of withdrawing the Israeli nationality from those 400 people because of the difficulties they face from being ostracized by their neighbors and relatives. A source at the Israeli Ministry of the Interior said on Tuesday that Suissa, following his visit to the Golan, convened a meeting on this issue, attended by Premier Netanyahu and Israeli security circles. The Israeli security circles warned against the political results that may result from the withdrawal of the Israeli identity.

Meanwhile, Suissa decided to restore regulations that used to be enforced at the crossing point in Quneitra on the Syrian-Israeli border. Israeli radio reported that the chairman of the Israeli Interior Committee, Saleh Tarif, made an announcement in this respect on Wednesday during his meeting with the Israeli minister. Tarif added that university students and wed couples who live in Syria can visit their families in the Golan Heights.

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