1.
GV Inhabitants of Majdal Shams village waving PAN AND ZOOM INTO people waving back from side of border. (2 SHOTS)
0.23

2.
GV Israeli patrol car on border line ZOOM OUT PAN village and people waving at relatives on other side of border.
1.04

3.
GV U.N. post.
1.14

4.
SV Inhabitants of Majdal Shams clapping and waving to relatives. (3 SHOTS)
2.01

5.
GV People on other side of border.
2.20




Initials JS





Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The annexation of the Golan Heights by Israel took place in December of last year. For the people living in the area - mostly Druze Arabs - it meant the splitting up of families and relatives. On Friday (23 April), people living on both sides of the border from the villages of Majdal Shams, Masarda and Bakaata crowded at the border area to greet each other. The inhabitants from both sides sang Syrian songs and the inhabitants on the annexed side of the border used loudhailers to express their rejection of the Israelis decision to issue them with new identity cards. They shouted that they wished to maintain their Syrian nationality and were determined to reject the Israeli annexation. Although and Israeli patrol car passed between the two groups there was no trouble. The area is patrolled by a United Nations peacekeeping force. The thirteen thousand Druze Arabs living in the area, reject the annexation and have been on various forms of protest strikes since its implementation. The Israeli decision to issue new identity cards brought storms of protest and a wave of strikes in the annexed sector.