Given the paucity of information about the population of the Golan Heights before the Israeli occupation in 1967, the Institute for Palestine Studies decided to conduct a series of interviews among the some 350,000 Golani refugees living in Syria. The ten testimonies reproduced below, which follow a brief profile of the Golan, were chosen as a representative sample of the experiences recounted and as a reflection of the ethnic diversity, religious plurality, and lifestyle of the region.

Sakr Abu Fakhr is on the editorial committee of Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyya (MDF), the Institute for Palestine Studies Arabic quarterly, and writes for al-Safir, a daily newspaper in Beirut.