The picturesque town of Majdal Shams — just a 40-minute drive from Damascus — featured in Israeli director Eran Riklis’s award-winning film The Syrian Bride.
The town is in the Israeli occupied Syrian Golan Heights, a region that has experienced terrible violence and upheaval for decades. Those who didn’t flee Majdal Shams are mostly Arab Druze who chose to maintain Syrian nationality.
A review of The Syrian Bride in the Los Angeles Times concluded that the film gives “hope that the strength of humanity in general and women in particular will end up making a difference”.
However, since The Syrian Bride was first released, hope would be in short supply among the residents of Majdal Shams.
In May 2011, the town witnessed shocking violence after Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinian protesters, killing four of them.
In August 2014, “Islamist opposition fighters in Syria” that included insurgents from the Al-Qaeda affiliated group Jabhat al-Nusra took control of a crossing point into Syria not far from Majdal Shams.
Then in 2015, an activist from Majdal Shams – who had been a political prisoner for 27 years – was arrested after he drew attention on social media to the support Israel was providing Jabhat al-Nusra. The following year, a former head of Israel’s Mossad acknowledged that Israel had indeed assisted the Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group.
(Ironically, a staunch supporter of the Netanyahu government, Peter Dutton, was responsible for the Australian government declaring Jabhat al-Nusra a terrorist organisation.)
However, it was a recent event that brought international attention to Majdal Shams; its ramifications and wider context give cause to despair for humanity.........