What is the Golan Heights and why is this place so important to Israel and Syria?
The Golan Heights, located in the southwestern corner of Syria and bordering Israel, Lebanon and Jordan, is a 1,000 square kilometer rocky plateau about 40 miles (60 km) from Damascus, although it has more significance and has been a political center. . decades.
Israel has occupied the Golan Heights since the 1980s and now its forces have taken over the war-torn region, thanks to the fall of Bashar al-Assad's brutal dictatorship in Syria.
Troops have also been deployed across the blockade and into Syrian territory, and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Israeli military had been ordered to create a “barren security zone” in southern Syria, adding that it would not remain in place forever. Israel had previously described reports from Syrian sources that it had breached the defense zone as “false”.
Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's control of the highlands “guarantees our security and sovereignty” adding that “the Golan will be part of the State of Israel forever”.
Israel's cabinet has now unanimously agreed to Mr Netanyahu's $11m (£8.7m) plan to double the population of the Golan Heights because of potential security risks after Bashar al-Assad is ousted from Syria.
His office said the money would be used for education, renewable energy, the establishment of a student village, and a program to find new residents.
It's a move that has drawn condemnation from the entire region and the UN. Here, The Independent sets out why Israel considers the Golan Heights so important.
Why is Israel occupying the Golan Heights?
It was captured by Israeli forces during the 1967 Six-Day War, a brief war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Syrian Arab civilians fled the area during the conflict, before a demarcation line was drawn and the region was placed under Israeli military control. Settlers began entering the Golan almost immediately thereafter.
Israeli military vehicles drive after crossing the fence into the buffer zone with Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights (AFP via Getty Images)
Fourteen years of military rule followed – including Syria's failed attempt to retake the Golan in 1973. Israel and Syria signed a cease-fire agreement in 1974 and a UN patrol has been present on the cease-fire line since 1974. .
In December of that year, the UN Security Council passed resolution 497, declaring the Golan Heights to remain an inhabited area and a legal occupation “null and void and without international legal effect”.
More than forty years later, the entire international community – barring the US and Israel – considers the Golan Heights to be part of Syria under Israeli rule. In 2019, the US recognized the Golan Heights as a sovereign territory of Israel during the first term of Donald Trump – becoming the only country to do so.
Israeli soldiers take up positions near the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Golan Heights from Israel to Syria, in the town of Majdal Shams (AP)
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the decision was taken on Sunday to take over the area to protect its citizens. Israel later told the UN Security Council that it was taking “limited and temporary” measures to counter threats to its security.
The move was condemned by regional powers, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.
Reports from Syrian sources that Israel has broken into Syrian territory across the Golan Heights – and is 25 kilometers from the Syrian capital, Damascus – were strongly denied by the Israelis, who said their forces remained “within the protected area”.
Why is Israel so passionate about the Golan Heights?
About 23,000 Druze people, who identify as Arabs and did not flee the country during the 1967 war, currently live near 30 Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights.
Israeli military vehicles cross the fence as they return from the buffer zone with Syria (AFP via Getty Images)
In 2021, Israel vowed to double the number of Jews living in the Golan Heights within five years, approving 7,300 houses in the area to bring in another 23,000 settlers. Israel's hard-line prime minister at the time, Naftali Bennett, told his cabinet: “It cannot be said that the Golan Heights belong to Israel.”
This area is of great military importance. When Syria controlled the Heights between 1948 and 1967, it would use it as a vantage point for Israel's northern encroachment. At the top of the Heights sports a view that reaches Damascus and oversees much of southern Syria, allowing Israel to monitor Syrian movements and making Syrian military action against Israel difficult.
The Golan also has fertile land, and is an important source of water in the arid region.
In the past, the Syrian regime wanted a peace agreement with Israel, it wants a complete withdrawal from the pre-1967 borders and the removal of all Israeli settlements.
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