People enjoy a food truck in a plaza in Ghajar, Oct. 14, 2022. JTA photo by Yossi Aloni/Flash90. GHAJAR, Israel A group of 40 tourists filed into Khateb Sweets on a recent Sunday afternoon, bringing chatter and their cash and credit cards to what had been a quiet cafe in this equally sedate village in the Golan
For decades, Ghajar, the only Israeli community of Alawites, was out of bounds for residents from the rest of the country; with ban canceled, visitors are flocking in
With a well-educated populace, coffee shops, restaurants and a whole host of tourist attractions, the once-isolated enclave had its restrictions lifted by the IDF last September, turning it into a small tourist paradise friendly to all visitors regardless of belief