Golan Heights: 枪炮声中摘樱桃

choi

贝特尼·贝尔, 记者来鸿：枪炮声中摘樱桃. BBC Chinese, June 20, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/si ... cherrypicking.shtml

, which is translated from

Bethany Bell, Golan Heights: Picking Cherries Within Earshot of a War Zone. BBC, June 14, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22884744

Note:
(a) Golan Heights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_Heights
(a basaltic plateau; section 1 Etymology and toponymy; The broader Golan plateau exhibits a more subdued topography, generally ranging between 120 metres (390 ft) and 520 metres (1,710 ft) in elevation; highest elevation: 2,814 metres (9,232 ft) on Mount Hermon in the north)
(b) cherry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry
(two species [native] in America; section 2.1 Etymology and antiquity)

(c) "A Druze friend had invited us to come and pick some cherries in her family's orchard near the village of Majdal Shams in the far north of the Golan."
(i) Druze
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druze
(emerged during the 11th century from the Ismailism school of Shia Islam; section 2.1 Origin of the name)
(ii) Majdal Shams
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majdal_Shams
(section 1 Etymology)

(d) "Traditionally, the Druze have had close religious and political ties to the family of the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad. The secretive Druze religion, like Mr Assad's Alawite sect, draws on branches of Shia Islam."
(i) Bashar al-Assad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashar_al-Assad
(His father, Hafez al-Assad, born to a poor family of Alawite background; His last name in Arabic means "the lion")
(ii) Alawite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alawite
(a religious group within Shia Islam; section 1 Etymology)

(e) "At her cafe in the village of Masa-ade next to Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan, a woman served us kunafe, a cake made of sweet cheese, delicately scented with rose water."
(i) kunafeh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunafeh
(ii) rose water
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_water