As Syrian regime falls next door, Golan town of Katzrin keeps calm and carries on
Residents of ‘The Capital of the Golan’ went about their business on Sunday, but some expressed uncertainty about the historical changes taking place a short car ride away
Gavriel Fiske is a reporter at The Times of Israel
KATZRIN — On Sunday, as news officially broke that Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad had been deposed from power in Damascus by the lighting quick resurgence of the Syrian rebel groups, in the northern Israeli town of Katzrin near the border, it was business as usual.
A quiet locale of some 8,000 residents, Katzrin, sometimes billed as “The Capital of the Golan,” lies just 19 kilometers (12 miles) from the Syrian border and is part of territory captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War, and later officially annexed.
In the main shopping area near the town entrance, people arrived as usual to go to the supermarket or fill up on gas. Soldiers were everywhere, from youthful conscripts grabbing a bite to eat to middle-aged reservists greeting each other in the crisp, sunny winter air.
“We feel wonderful today,” said Vered, a religious Jewish woman with a head-covering who declined to give her last name.
Carrying her young son on her arm and speaking to The Times of Israel next to a portable concrete bomb shelter outside the supermarket, she said, “We have quiet today, and we have a strong army that protects us, and we feel it. Despite the difficulties, we have a good life here.”
With a mixed secular and religious population, Katzrin has traditionally drawn residents who are attracted to an outdoor lifestyle, lower real estate prices, and a sense of community. The town boasts quiet neighborhoods, no high-rise buildings, and an active business district, as well as an archaeological park and a branch of Tel Hai Academic College.
Many Katzrin residents have traditionally made their living through the tourism industry, which has taken a heavy hit since the October 7, 2023, start of the Israel-Hamas war, in which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst into southern Israel, massacring some 1,200 and carrying off 251 back to Gaza.
Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon, began firing into northern Israel the next day, including on the Golan Heights, where missiles over the summer sparked large wildfires. Some missiles have scored direct hits on Katzrin houses. Moreover, since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, Katzrin and Golan Heights residents have become used to the sound of bombs and warfare coming from across the Syrian border.
The dramatic success of Israel against Hezbollah over the last several months and the recent Israel-Lebanon ceasefire have done little to change the situation in Katzrin, and the new developments in Syria are likely to further keep the tourists away, according to Ori Zacharia, the proprietor of “Han Zavitan,” a tourism center.
“We have been suffering for more than a year,” Zacharia said bluntly, showing this reporter around his compound containing a restaurant, a shop, and small cottages for vacationers. His restaurant has been closed for some time due to a lack of customers, he said, and he has turned it into a display with pictures of the Israel hostages in Gaza lining the walls.
Next to the restaurant, he has installed a portable toilet that was salvaged from the Supernova festival massacre site. The front door is riddled with bullet holes.
At Supernova, the Hamas terrorists “were indiscriminate murderers,” and some of the rebel groups claiming success in Syria now are “just the same,” so Israel will have to be on guard, he said.
The fall of Assad is “a tectonic, international earthquake” that is “a reaction to the damage caused by the Sykes-Pikot agreement,” in which the European powers created new states out of the old Ottoman Empire after World War I, favoring some ethnic groups and “punishing” others, Zacharia said, offering a historical perspective.
Hopefully, he said, there will be a new regime in Syria that will leave Israel alone, allowing tourism to return to the Golan.
The triumvirate meets
On the other side of Katzrin, in the old shopping center built around a small central courtyard, three elderly gentlemen were having an afternoon chat at their usual spot next to the fruit and vegetable market.
When asked about their reaction to the current events in Syria, Salim, who hails from the Druze community, noted that his family has good relations with Israeli authorities and his father even acted as a guide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a years-ago visit to the Golan.
Still, with the removal of Assad from power, “That’s it, I’m moving back to Syria!” he said, joking.
“You already moved countries without moving from your house. Why bother?” his friend Max said in response, speaking with a slight Russian accent.
“Trust Bibi to protect us,” said their friend Tsahal firmly, using Netanyahu’s common nickname. “It’s better here, with us.”
‘It’s going to be weird for a while’
In Katzrin’s business district, a sprawling neighborhood of warehouses and offices, Gabriel Bass, who runs a custom Judaica and woodworking business, said that in general, Golan residents have become used to continuing their lives despite the chaos around them.
“We try to have a nice peaceful home here in the Golan, but you hear about these terrible atrocities happening a few kilometers away… It’s there, but it’s not going to change how you act, because we’ve been going through such hard times for so long now, it’s just another thing,” he said.
Bass, a resident of Moshav Yonatan, just south of Katzrin, said that “literally two days ago,” in response to the Lebanon ceasefire, the community removed roadblocks initially set up at the entrance more than a year ago, and reduced the schedule for the local security team.
But now, with the instability in Syria, “maybe we should already put them back. It’s going to be weird for a while,” he said.
The situation in Syria “is disconcerting because we don’t know what kinds of weapons the rebels have confiscated from the Assad government,” said Katzrin resident Shani, a friend of Bass’s who declined to give his last name.
He trusts the IDF to protect them, he said, and thinks that “it would be unwise at this point for the rebels to mess with us.”
“There isn’t much we can do about it, but we’re not concerned, there’s no immediate threat,” Shani said, noting that in his local WhatsApp groups, people on Sunday “were not really discussing” the regime change in Syria or expressing concern.
Not everyone was so sanguine, however.
“We are afraid,” said Sarah, a mom coming out of the supermarket wearing a COVID-style face mask.
She and her family are evacuees from Kiryat Shmona, she explained, and after the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, were just getting used to the idea of eventually returning home when the new situation in Syria developed.
“Everything is up in the air again, and we don’t know what to do,” she said.
