Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Banias" in English language version.
In June 1967, the penultimate day of the Six Day War saw Israeli tanks storm into Banias in breach of a UN ceasefire accepted by Syria hours earlier. The Israeli general Moshe Dayan had decided to act unilaterally and take the Golan. The Arab villagers fled to the Syrian Druze village of Majdal Shams higher up the mountain, where they waited. After seven weeks, abandoning hope of return, they dispersed east into Syria. Israeli bulldozers razed their homes to the ground a few months later, bringing to an end two millennia of life in Banias. Only the mosque, the church and the shrines were spared, along with the Ottoman house of the shaykh perched high atop its Roman foundations.
Explanatory signs give the Israeli version of history. On the map, the basilica has become a synagogue, the Ottoman shaykh's house has become 'Corner Tower', and the Syrian Officers' Pool is simply 'the Officers' Pool'. The free leaflet that accompanies the entry ticket explains that Banias is now 'a perfect place to understand the pagan world of the Land of Israel and Phoenicia'.
