Israel Travel Forum

hello friends.
what is the closet destination here on VT about the hermon ?

i want to put some tips about the mountain.

thanks

Shalom Ophir.
Unfortunately VT (and most of the world) do not think that Mt. Hermon is in Israel (it is just temporary) so either you find the Arab name of it to put it in Syria or, make a travelogue in Israel north district which is the Haifa District.

i have a northern district page but i thought to be more accurate , you know .

Vt should update the places because i think they put majdal shams in syria and not israel

how's life in Finland ?

Yeh, because Majdal Shams is "officially" in Syria. But why should we care? Look at this in the positive way, you can go there anytime you want and you do not require to obtain a visa or change money ;-)

I have followed Gils lead & put my Mount Hermon page under Muhafazat al Qunaytirah.

(~_~)

thanks !
but i think we should tell VT about this mistake.

ophir

I told them about it years ago. This was done by purpose. According to the international law Ramat-Hagolan is part of Syria. Even by Israeli law it wasn't considered part of the state of Israel until 1982.

but now it is in Israel so they should change it.
if i can go to the hermon without using my passport i guess it is in israel ;-)

I think the best location for you to use is Majdal Shams.

I gave up of asking VT to change the travel map, they dont seem to
want to change it at any case.

S.

i think we need to create one destination and this was we wont confuse the tourists.

According to the international law it is still Syria and not Israel. I agree that the information in VT shouldn't care about these legal definitions. As it is a tourist site they should supply information relevant for tourists. For any practical issue, this is Israel. A tourist who wants to visit should know that s/he needs to get an Israeli VISA and not a Syrian one that the currency is NIS, etc. Not only that, there are no entries for any new town or village which weren't there in 1967. So, if you want to write a tip about Neve Ativ, for example, you can't.

The most frustrating fact is, they are very strict about Israel, but they don't have a problem having Tibet, for example, under China.

Yes... there are more examples like that here...
Not sure why is it Israel that always gets the 'special treat'.

Anyway, Ophir, this are the nearest Israeli Locations to Mt.Herrmon.
that are listes in VT's map, Couldn't find anything closer then that:

Dafna,
Baniyas
Bet Hillel
Tel Hay
Kefar Blum
Qiryat Shemona
Metulla

I guess that Either Metulla or Q. Shmona are the best for mount Hermon although.

S.

i know but i dont want to say some bad words about it because it can be a problem.

someone told me to write about the hermon in kiryat shmona.

like i said - we (all the israeli VTers) should decide where to put our hermon page and build it on the same location and this way a tourist will be able to browse all our tips instead of searching in this site.

Just put it under the closest "Israeli" region - this forum is about practice, not politics - the syrians are not even allowing visitors whom had been to Israel once, to visit there, so by practice, Mt. Hermon is in no mans land.

i can put it haifa district but i wanted to put it in a accurate destination.

I'd day that Metulla would be the nearest location and
you can use it for your Mt. Hermon page.

S.

btw - do you know about emek ha'hula ?
is there a location ? i couldnt find.

I never found anything about the Hulla Valley.
You can use either Bet Hillel, Kefar Blum or Q. Shemona for that.

thanks sharon.

You're welcome !

I would go with Yesud Hamaala for Ha-Hula (http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Middle_East/Israel/Haifa_District/Yesud_HaMaala-1707940/TravelGuide-Yesud_HaMaala.html)

There's nothing about conspiracy theorists here G. Its just so frustrating
to face problems like that everywhere, not only in VT.
The Golan heights is under Israeli control for over 30 years, since then so many new areas, Kibbutzim and others were built, places that wasn't exist
back then and do exist now, we are traveling there and returning wanting to tell about and show them and its impossible.
So this places do not belong to Syria but are not listed under Israel, there must be some solution for that, its simply frustrating after all we are here for sharing our travels and information.

S.

maybe you can add those places to Israel without removing from syria and don't put it even under "haifa district".
maybe you can also make the destination near kiryat shmona or something like that although it is not that close.

G, we know each other enough time by now and i know you solve things fast,
But its just frustrating, really.... But okay, i anyway gave up on this
about 2-3 month ago and wrote about my trips to the Golan Heights In a Syrian pages explaining it all.

And besides, im writing pages on a country that i never visited... thats not right... maybe i should snick my hand under the electric fence and touch the "formal" syrian land... will that make my pages Legal ? :-)


S.

However i have built my

There is no dispute about the international law. I don't buy the technical exscuse though. I told you about the Golan height issue long before the move to the new database. Back then it was even worse as the area was completely absent from VT. Not even as part of Syria.

The main issue is what is VT intended to be. If it's just an atlas with some tips attached then it's OK to stick to the international law. If it is to be used by travellers it should reflect the current status and disregard the political issues. If someone want to visit Mt. Hermon he would probably want to know he needs an Israeli visa and not a Syrian one. He probably couldn't care less about the dispute between Israel and Syria. If you such an observer of international law, why don't separate Jerusalem from Israel? Officially, it's not part of Israel as the UN resolution from 1947 declared it as an international zone, not part of Israel or Palestine.

As I see it, the least VT should do is put some warnings in places like the Golan heights about the conflict between the current de-facto status and the international law.

And yet you do, and not in a very polite way. This technical issue can be true now, but it wasn't a factor when these entries were added to VT. Looking at guide books, one can see the Golan in the Israel books and not the Syria ones. But, as I said, this is OK if you hadn't meant it as a pure travel guide.

Well, you got the wrong man. I said several times to the other Israeli VT (and even wrote it up there in this thread) that the Golan is part of Syria according to the international law. I understand the desire not to get into complicated political disputes, only I think it makes VT a little less user friendly. Nobody thinks that Lonely Planet recognized the Israeli annexation of the Golan because it appears in the Israel guide. But, this is not such a big deal. I assume that no one would decide to visit Syria just because he wanted to see the Golan.

G
i am sure he didnt mean to call you a liar and i agree that it is a problematic situation bt why cant you add some of the destination with their names (the israeli names) in syria.
since you built the database we have more settlements in the golan but even if it is syria it is now a problem to add.
it is ok with me to write a tip about a destination like mount hermon and just to write in the subject that it is in Israel now but on your pages it will be syria.
all i want is the destinations , that i will be able to write and add tips and pics.
like sharon said , we have a lot of places to write about in the golan but we dont have a destination to add , not in israel and not in syria.

take care man

of course i believe you - i just said my opinion and if it is a problem (technical problem) so i guess we will have to wait and hope for the best.

i think i will say what a lot of israeli people think : please check this option for us , maybe if you want we (the israeli vters) will decide about the most important places and will give you a list and if it will be ok you will add them someday ?

this way we will be happy , other tourists will be happy and the entire VT community will be happy

ophir

I don’t see the big fuss: obviously the site owner doesn’t know what "Muhafazat al Qunaytirah" means, or where it is exactly, the same as we don’t… Its some official database that was used here, as you could tell by checking the local "official Israeli" for places that seem to carry names known only to people who check governmental lists. The Syrian list was used here, and no (up-to-date) Israeli one was used instead or in addition – that’s the reason places like Neve Ativ, do not exist. There are plenty of ways to be practical about this issue, starting with writing pages under "northern region" of similar locations – we are not writing "Kol Makom Ve'ater". If you really care about this, just avoid writing pages/tips under those locations

There should be more urgent issues regarding tourism here (all tourists who do their homework regard Golan to be in Israel…). Check this annoying article:

http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3135205,00.html

Ahhh....forget it! All this discussion about International Law is endless. In VT they even invent countries. They list a country called "Palestine," and no International Law or UN resolution recognizes the existance of such a country. Tell me about conspiracy theories now. Anyways, I suggest you, Ophir, to put your Hermon tips in a travelogue in your Israel home page. Any tourist coming to Israel shall review a general page about Israel beforehand.

talmid