Ghadjar : a whole or divided village?
Srebro, Haim
Powerpoint presentation.
The presentation dealt with the strange case of the village of Ghadjar (Ghajar). Ghadjar is near the point where Lebanon, Syria and Israel (in their pre-1967 boundaries) meet. From 1920 to 1967 it was under Syrian rule, and was then occupied by Israel from 1967 to 2000. Following the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, the village was partitioned between Lebanon and the Israelioccupied Golan Heights. This has adversely affected the village's economy and plunged its inhabitants into legal limbo. The partition is a direct result of a poorly defined old boundary being re-imposed onto a village which had, over a period of decades, expanded to a size where the old boundary now splits it in two. The presentation ended with a plea for those who demarcate boundaries to pay more attention to the situation on the groundd and to ensure that boundaries are defined and demarcated utilising orthophotos and a universally accepted coordinate system such as WGS84.
Event: Expanding horizons in a shrinking world
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