The UN Disengagement Force have reported their findings that Syria allowed Palestinian Refugees access to the Syria-Israeli occupied Golan border. The report also concluded however that Syrian officials did not organise the protests, according to AFP. The UN group, charged with monitoring the ceasefire between Syria and Israel, claimed that on May 15th and June 8th protesters’ made their way to the border and “despite the presence of the Syrian police, crossed the ceasefire line, through an unmarked minefield’.
The report by UNDOF, investigating the events of Naksa and Nakba Day, which claims that the protests were not orchestrated by the Syrian authorities, contradicts a letter received by a Telegraph blogger Michael Weiss, apparently from a Syrian official, claiming Syrian directly organised the events.
The letter, which bears the Syrian Republic emblem and is signed Dr. Khalil Mash-hadiya, Mayor of Al-Qunaiter, sent to Weiss shows Syrian officials directly organised 20 buses, of 47 protesters each, to travel to the border village of Majdal Shams and instructed that they be allowed access unimpeded by Syrian security.
16 people were killed on May 15th at the Lebanese and Syria border in attempts by Palestinian refugees to cross the border in a symbolic gesture marking the right of return to their homes in Israel. A further 22 were said to be killed on the Golan-Syrian border on June 8th according to Syrian state media.
