Marissa Newman is The Times of Israel political correspondent.
A Syrian officer's journal found by teens in the Golan Heights. (screen capture: Channel 2)
A Syrian officer’s journal dating from 1967, which contains detailed plans to attack Israeli soldiers and documents the Syrian troops’ day-to-day activities, was discovered in the Golan Heights on Saturday.
The notebook was found by a 13-year-old resident of Kfar Yehezkel, who was hiking with his family near an abandoned Syrian outpost in the southern Golan Heights, Channel 2 reported.
The boy brought his discovery to school — not knowing what it was — and asked his Arabic instructors to translate its contents.
“I brought the notebooks to my Arabic teachers in school,” he said. “They told me it was [written] in a Syrian Aleppo [dialect] so it would take them time to decipher it. We realized it was a war diary and I was thrilled to discover that I have something historical, meaningful to that period.”
A view of the Syrian town of Quneitra seen from the Israeli Golan Heights. November 12, 2012 (photo credit: Flash90)
The report did not identify the officer to whom the journal belonged.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed the territory in 1981.
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
