In 1994, Robin Twite, an Israeli academic in Jerusalem and a retired senior official of the British Council, published in a small newsletter called The Hornet, his proposals for a Golan Heights Peace Park. The park area would be fenced in, demilitarised, and policed jointly by a small Israel-Syrian force, with international observers. Tourist facilities would be expanded with outside investment. Some territory would be returned to Syria which would have de jure sovereignty over the entire area, and provision for Israeli, Syrian and Druse communities to live there. The park would also protect his beautiful area where wildlife - notably deer and a range of eagles and other birds of prey - now thrive.
The Israeli foreign ministry has responded that 'there is no chance in the foreseeable future of the international park plan being considered by the Syrian government'.
A similar plan - for Gan Hashalom, a Garden of Peace on the Golan - but including a conflict resolution university and alternative energy facilities, has been proposed by eco-visionary Hari Ringer in Jaffa.
Robin Twite, Israel Palestine Information Centre, PO 1358, Jerusalem 91513 (tel 00972 274 382; or at Hebrew University, tel 00972 2 882 324).
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