Golan Heights

The Golan Heights is a plateau on the border of Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. It is one of the territories captured by Israel during the Six-Day War. The Golan Heights are still claimed by Syria.

Geographically, Golan is bordered on the west by a rock escarpment that drops 1700 feet to the Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan River, on the south by the Yarmouk River, on the north by the international border with Lebanon, on the east by a largely flat plain. The Golan is usually divided into three regions: northern (between Nahals Sa'ar and Gilabon), central (between Nahals Gilabon and Dilayot), and southern (between Nahal Dilayot and the Yarmouk Valley).

Sites on the Golan in Blue are Israeli settlement communities. Sites on the Golan in Black are Syrian communities

Table of contents

1 Current status 2 Ancient History 2.1 History since World War I 3 External links

Current status

A UN force - UNDOF (Disengagement Observer Force) was established in 1974 to supervise the implementation of the agreement and maintain the ceasefire with an area of separation.

The Syrian and Israeli governments are still contesting the ownership of the Heights but have not used overt military force since 1974. The great strategic value of the Heights both militarily and as a source of water means that a deal is uncertain.

Ancient History

In the 700s BCE the Assyrians gained control of the area, but were later replaced by the Babylonian and the Persian Empire. In the 5th century BCE, the region was settled by returning Jewish exiles from Babylon (modern Iraq).

In the 4th century BCE, the area came under the control of Alexander the Great and remained under Hellenestic rule, until captured by the Romans. In the mid 2nd century BCE, Judah Maccabee aided the local Jewish communities when they came under attack, although the area itself was not in Jewish hands.

The area was named Golan following the Roman occupation -- the Greeks referred to the area as "Gaulanitis", the term used by the Romans, which led to the word "Golan". After the partioning of the Roman Empire in 391 AD, the Golan Heights became part of the Byzantine Empire. In 636, the area came under Arab control and quickly under the control of the Caliph in Baghdad. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Druze began to settle the northern Golan and the slopes of Mount Hermon. Sudanese, Algerians, Turkomans and Samarian Arabs also settled on the Heights. In the 16th century, the Ottoman Turks came in control of the area, and remained so until the end of World War I.

In the 1880s, a Jewish community called Ramataniya was started; it failed within a year.

History since World War I

The boundary between the forthcoming British and French mandates was defined in broad terms by the Franco-British Boundary Agreement of December 1920. This placed most of the Golan in the French sphere. However, the joint commission formed to demarcate the border precisely did not complete its work until 1923, so the actual transfer of the Golan to French control did not occur until the year after the British Mandate of Palestine came into being. In accordance with the same process, a nearby parcel of land that included the ancient site of Dan was transferred from Syria to Palestine early in 1924. The Golan Heights thus became part of the French Mandate of Syria and, when that mandate ended in 1944, part of Syria. Syria retained control of the Golan Heights for 23 years from 1944 to 1967.

After the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli War, the Syrians fortified on the Heights, from which they shelled civilian targets in Israel and launched other attacks for the next eighteen years. 140 Israelis were killed and many more were injured in these attacks from 1949 to 1967. The Mixed Armistice Commission (which oversaw the implementation of the Israel-Syria Armistice Agreement) reported violations of the agreement by both sides.

After the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli War, the Golan Heights were partly demilitarized by the Israel-Syria Armistice Agreement. Over the following years the Mixed Armistice Commission reported many violations by each side.

During the Six-Day War (1967), the IDF captured the Golan Heights on 9-10 June. The area which came under Israeli control as a result of the war is two geologically distinct areas: the Golan Heights proper (1,070 km2) and the slopes of the Mt. Hermon range (100 km2).

Before the Six-Day War the strategic heights of the Golan, which are approximately 3000 ft. above pre-1967 Israel, were used to frequently bombard civilian Israeli farming communities far below them, although Moshe Dayan (Israeli Defense Minister during the 1967 war) would later state that it was most often the result of Israeli provocations in the demilitarized zone.

Most of the Golans' inhabitants, mainly Syrian Arabs, fled during the Six-Day War. For various political reasons, they have not been allowed to return. This has led to the splitting of many families.

Israel began settling the Golan almost immediately following the war. Kibbutz Merom Golan was founded in July 1967. By 1970 there were 12 Jewish communities on the Golan and by 2004 there were 34 settlements holding around 18,000 people.

During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Syrian forces overran much of the southern Golan, before being pushed back by a Israeli counterattack. Israel and Syria signed a ceasefire agreement in 1974 that left the Heights in Israeli hands with a demilitarized zone in Syrian civil, but not military control.

Syria has always demanded a full Israeli withdrawal from all of the Golan Heights, to the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee (the pre-1967 border). Successive Israeli governments have expressed support for an some Israeli withdrawal from the Golan without specifying the extent of this withdrawal. In return for this withdrawal, Israel demands that the area of the Golan falling under Syrian control become demilitarized and that other security measures are implemented to prevent a potential surprise Syrian attack.

Israel has always insisted that any agreement with Syria must include fully normalized diplomatic and economic relations.

The Golan Heights were officially annexed by Israel in 1981. The United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 497 stating that Israel's annexation is null and void and against International Law. Regarding the Golan Heights, Yitzhak Rabin stated

Words are not enough about the Golan Heights. We must put them into actions... Withdrawal from the Golan is unthinkable, even in times of peace. Anyone considering withdrawal from the Golan Heights would be abandoning Israel’s security. Let us invest, all of us together, in order to fulfill our obligations to the Golan Heights. And to you residents — those who made the Golan Heights what it is — you have all my respect.

See also: UN Security Council Resolution 242, Six Day War, Yom Kippur War, Israeli settlement

External links