Despite the increase in reports of a secret deal between Israel and Syria calling for an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, Golan residents are already launching their next battle to save their homes, announcing they have no plans of leaving their homes.

Golan leaders have sent a letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who according to reports is acting as a third-party mediator in talks between Yerushalayim and Damascus, telling the high-ranking official they support ongoing peace efforts with Syria, adding that a deal may not include the Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

Katzrin Local Council head Sami Bar-Lev explained the letter explained that the Golan community is willing to assist in anyway possible towards achieving peace, adding the model for such an agreement must be the agreement between Syria and Turkey in 2004, in which the sides learned that in order to achieve peace, they were compelled to abandon certain demands.

Golan area community leaders on Thursday met to begin planning their strategy for the battle over their homes. Similar government signals towards giving away the Golan Heights were seen during the administrations of Prime Ministers Yitzchak Rabin and Ehud Barak.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)