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I turned and approached
city's wall at its most eastern point, where I felt hair standing on my neck, my pulse quickening. The only part of wall still standing had three huge holes punched through by Roman battering rams. The massive wounds, where warriors gushed through, gaped to allow five of me. As I stepped through, I felt desperation and fear Gamlans felt - followers of a single deity being attacked by many-godded warriors. I gasped for air, imagining huge men leaping through, raging and blood-thirsty. I stepped to outside of city, tentatively touching black stones, feeling their warmth, their sadness.
I re-entered city through main gates, purposely saving synagogue for last. As mere shadow of its former elegance, God's black basalt home now reach only 3 or 4 feet of wall height. I sat on delicately carved benches marking out edges of single room, and imagined residents praying, as I did then ' asking for help, expressing gratitude for miracles, little and large. I saw birds of prey, circling and diving overhead, as they surely most have 2,000 years before, and I suddenly felt grip of unimaginable loss. I wiped away unexpected tears.
According to park brochure, Gamla and whole Golan was recovered during Six-Day War in June 1967. That summer, Israeli forces annexed Golan, a precious land with military importance not lost on Syrians. The hills of Golan overlook entire Kinneret Valley, and they had given a perfect, peeping-Tom view of Israeli goings-on. Even though Golan represents less than 1% of total land mass of Syria, it is so important that Syrian government has refused to join with Egypt and Jordan in signing a peace treaty with Israel until Golan is returned.
Slowly, I identified my grief. I knew that if Syria took Golan back, I probably could never visit this lovely synagogue again.
I returned to car with an empty water bottle, and we three women drove 20 kilometers down road to Katzrin, a new Israeli town, sparkling white, squeaky clean. Like all new towns in Golan, it was built expressly to expand Israeli population, so that returning land to Syria would be more difficult. Among shimmering new homes, shopping centers, and schools, a small, elegant, air-conditioned museum displayed Gamla's articles of wealth and destruction - pots, ceramics, coins, and uncountable roman spear- and arrowheads.
A 20-minute film told Gamla's story. As an American, I was dimly aware that I was watching those people living and dying all of Jewish history. For Nava and Karni, it was second nature. These two women, now part of my family, saw, at once, all fights and deaths of early resistors, six million victims of Holocaust, and deaths caused by suicide bombers. The presentation concluded with words, "Gamla will never fall again." As lights came up, both Nava and Karni dabbed tears of patriotism and grief.
It was then that I understood that tensions in Middle East are not just about where borders of Israel and Palestinian territories are. Our current situation did not start with independence of Israel in 1948. This is a conflict that started thousands of years before for reasons no one really remembers. It is something that lives in desert air breathed by all who live and travel here.
Read this entire feature FREE with photos at http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/globe02/Mideast02/gamla/gamla.html
By Cymber Quinn - Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent - at www.jetsettersmagazine.com
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