QUNEITRA, Syria, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Tens of Syrians gathered on Tuesday in the city of al-Baath in southern Quneitra province to protest the U.S. recognition of the Syrian Golan Heights as part of Israel.
Waving the Syrian flags, the people chanted slogans stressing that the Golan Heights are part of Syrian territory and carried banners reading "All of us for Golan" and "Golan is a Syrian area."
The popular outrage comes against the decision of U.S. President Donald Trump to recognize the Golan Heights as Israeli territory.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the war in 1967 and annexed the territory in 1981.
Holding the Syrian flag, Bilal Sulaiman, 40 years old, told Xinhua that Trump doesn't have the right to grant a Syrian land to the Israelis.
"The Golan is Syrian territory, not only on paper but with its people, its land and rocks and water. It's a Syrian land and this is its identity," he said.
Wearing the traditional attire of the people of Golan and Quneitra, Jawdat al-Tawil, 60 years old, said the Syrian people completely reject Trump's announcement.
"We, the people of Golan, are Syrian citizens and we reject the decision of Trump and we don't even recognize such decisions because Golan is a Syrian area and everything in it is Syrian," al-Tawil told Xinhua.
For his part, head of the Quneitra Council Shehadeh al-Muri said the Golan Heights belong to the Syrian people.
"This land has owners and is not related by any means to the Zionist entity (Israel). It's fortified by its people and one day it will inevitably be liberated," he said.
Quneitra is adjacent to the Golan Heights and there is a crossing between Quneitra and the Golan Heights run by the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).
The crossing had been closed for many years during the crisis but was reopened in October last year.
The Quneitra crossing was the only crossing for the Syrians in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights to enter Syria, but people in the Syrian side are not allowed to enter the Golan Heights.
Syrian students of the Golan Heights had used the crossing ahead of the Syrian crisis to study in Syria.
Also, there have been marriages between Syrians in Golan and Quneitra in the past.
The UNDOF forces were first deployed between Syria and the Golan Heights in 1974 to separate Syrian and Israeli forces after Israel occupied the Golan Heights during the 1967 war.
A day earlier, the Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned Trump's recognition of the Syrian Golan Heights as Israeli territory.
The ministry said in a statement that Trump's move is a "flagrant violation of the sovereignty of Syria," adding that the Syrian government completely rejects the decision and the Golan Heights will always remain as Syrian territory.
"Trump does not have the legal right to legitimize the occupation of others' land by force," the ministry said.
Recognizing the Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights has been a recent demand by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which comes months after the Trump administration moved the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested city of Jerusalem.
