Various of man on tractor. Blow kiss to camera

Tractor driver out of house carrying mattress and holding dog on lead

People walking in kibbutz


Sign showing El Rom


Wrecks of T34 Syrian tanks. Arabic numbers on tanks

Tractor working in field.

Tractor driver interviewed: ' After the Yom Kippur war we live our life here, we try to live it as normal as possible. We feel we're doing good for us, and good for the country.'

















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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Kibbutz El Rom is one of the many Jewish settlements on the Golan Heights which last October, when the Syrians attacked on the Day of Atonement, was evacuated. Today, one year later, the same people and some others who joined them since, walk the same paths along the repaired houses as on Yom Kippur eve in 1973. Laughter of children fills the air and toddlers, born in El Rom, know not war. Outside the barbed wire fence surrounding the settlement a tractor ploughs through a beatroot field, preparing it for the winter planting, and whilst in settlements down in the valley,much further from the Syrian front, settlers carry arms against possible terrorists incursions, the Israelis here go about unarmed; this is one of the safest places in Israel, they say - and their confidence in the soldiers guarding the border, only a couple of miles away, is unlimited. "we consider it our duty to sit here and protect the rest of Israel and we are glad to do it, to be here", said the tractor driver, before going back to his tractor and carrying on with the word. Unfortunately, on the Northern Front, farmers still have the doubletask of tilling the soil and protecting the Land of Israel.