Golan Heights

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The Golan Heights (Arabic: هضبة الجولان Hadhbat al-Jaulan, Hebrew: רמת הגולן Ramat HaGolan) or Golan, formerly also known as the Syrian Heights are a plateau on the border of Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Israel captured the Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War (and again in the 1973 Yom Kippur War). In 1981, it applied its "laws, jurisdiction and administration" in the Golan Heights with the Golan Heights Law. Syria asserts that the Heights are part of the governorate of Al Qunaytirah. The international community considers the area Syrian territory under Israeli occupation, but Israel has a more complex position. (See Current status below).

1 Geography
2 Current status
3 Ancient history
4 History since World War I
5 Communities
6 See also
7 External links
8 Articles
9 References

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Geography

Image:Golan Hospital.jpeg Image:300px-GolanHeights-mill.jpg Image:Golan heights border.jpg Geographically, the Heights are bordered on the west by a rock escarpment that drops 1700 feet (500 m) 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, and on the east by a largely flat plain, called the Hauran. 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).

Geologically, the Golan Heights are a plateau, and part of a Holocene volcanic field that extends northeast almost to Damascus. The entire area is scattered with inactive cinder cones such as Majdal Shams. Mount Hermon is in the northern Golan Heights but is geologically separate from the volcanic field. Near Hermon is a crater lake called Birkat Ram ("Ram Pool") which is fed by underground springs.

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Current status

The Israeli army captured the Heights and put them under military administration from 1967 until 1981, when the Knesset passed The Golan Heights Law [1], similar to its 1967 measures concerning Jerusalem. Most of the Arab residents of the Golan Heights, mainly Druze, retain their Syrian citizenship even though Israeli citizenship is available to them. Syria continues to offer them some benefits such as free university tuition.

Israel's measures are frequently termed "annexation" but the real status of the Golan is very far from legally clear - the word "annexation" or equivalent concepts, like "extending sovereignty," are not used in the law itself. In any case, the result of the extension of sovereignty/annexation has been an end to the application of military regulations to the populace. It has also been noted that the Golan Heights may return to Syria as part of a peace settlement.

When Prime Minister Menachem Begin was asked in the Knesset why he was risking international criticism for this annexation, he replied "You use the word annexation, but I am not using it." The governmental Jewish Agency for Israel states that "Although reported as a annexation, it is not: the Golan Heights are not declared to be Israeli territory."[2] On the other hand, the Benjamin Netanyahu government's Basic Policy Guidelines stated "The government views the Golan Heights as essential to the security of the state and its water resources. Retaining Israel's sovereignty over the Golan will be the basis for an arrangement with Syria."[3] Neither the UN nor any country has recognised the "annexation" and they officially consider the Heights to be Syrian territory under Israeli military occupation. This view was expressed in the unanimous UN Security Council Resolution 497 stating that "the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect." It, like other relevant UN resolutions takes care to not explicitly call it an "annexation", referring at most to Israel's "annexationist policies."

Additionally, Lebanon claims a small portion of the area known as Shebaa Farms on Mount Dov in the area of Mount Hermon. Syria's position on the subject is unclear. Syria's foreign minister has orally declared that the Shebaa farms are Lebanese, but Syria has refused to notify the UN of its position officially. Thus, from the UN perspective, Shebaa remains Syrian until the Syrian government confirms its position through official channels. UN Security Council Resolution 425 confirmed [4] that as of June 16 2000, Israel had completely withdrawn its forces from Lebanon, thereby indirectly designating the farms as part of the Golan, and therefore Syrian territory. The reason behind this diplomatical imbroglio is that Syria fears that recognizing the Shebaa territory as Lebanese will allow Lebanon to negotiate a separate deal with Israel.

UNDOF (the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force) was established in 1974 to supervise the implementation of the disengagement agreement and maintain the ceasefire with an area of separation. Currently there are more than 1000 U.N peacekeepers there trying to sustain a lasting peace. Syria and Israel still contest 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.

Members of the UN Disengagement force are usually the only individuals who cross the Israeli-Syrian border, but since 1988, Israel has allowed Druze pilgrims to cross the border to visit the shrine of Abel in Syria. In 2005, Syria allowed a few trucks of Druze-grown Golan apples to be imported. The trucks themselves were driven by Kenyan nationals. Since 1967, brides have been allowed to cross the Golan border, but they do so in the knowledge that the journey is a one-way trip. This phenomenon is shown in the Israeli-Arab film "The Syrian Bride." The Golan Heights contains the only ski resort under Israeli control [5], and the extreme-weather unit of the IDF, the Alpinistim, train there.

Some Jews and Zionist organizations consider the Golan Heights to be liberated Jewish land; this view has very little support internationally. No other country has accepted the legality of the Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights.

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Ancient history

The area has been occupied by many civilizations. During the 3rd millennium BCE the Amorites dominated and inhabited the Golan until the 2nd millennium, when the Arameans took over. Later known as Bashan, the area was contested between Kingdom of Israel (the northern of the two Jewish kingdoms existent at that time) and the Aramean kingdom from the 800s BCE. King Ahab of Israel (reigned 874–852 BCE) defeated Ben-Hadad I in the southern Golan.

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 Babylonian Captivity (modern Iraq).

In the 4th century BCE, the area came under the control of Alexander the Great and remained under Hellenistic 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". The Nabataeans gained control of the area in 85 BCE. The area was later captured by the Romans after they took Nabatea. During the First Revolt (66-73 CE) against Rome by the Jews of Judea, a number of Jews captured a hilltop at Gamla, which later fell; the hilltop is today called the "Masada of the Golan".

In about 250 CE, the Ghassanids immigrated to the modern-day Golan and built their capital at Jabiyah. Their kingdom extended southward to the Hijaz and they controlled most of the Levant's trade routs. After the partitioning of the Roman Empire in 391 CE, the Golan Heights fell under the sphere of the Byzantine Empire, under the rule of their vassals, the Ghassanids. The area came under a short-lived Sassanid occupation that started in 614 and ended in approximately 628. In 636, the area was conquered by Muslim Arabs under the Caliph Umar I. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Druze began to settle the northern Golan and the slopes of Mount Hermon. 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 founded by early Zionists; it failed within a year.

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History since World War I

Image:Majdalshams.jpg Image:New community on the Golan .jpg

The boundary between the forthcoming British and French mandates was defined in broad terms by the Franco-British Boundary Agreement of December 1920. The demarcation was completed March 7, 1923, several months before Britain and France assumed their Mandatory responsibilities.[6] This placed most of the Golan in the French sphere. 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 the new independent state of Syria. They remained under Syrian control until 1967.

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 (which oversaw the implementation of the Israel-Syria Armistice Agreement) reported many violations by each side. The Syrians fortified positions on the Heights, from which they shelled civilian targets in Israel and launched other attacks for the next 18 years. Before the Six-Day War the strategic heights of the Golan, which are approximately 3000 ft (1000 m) 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. According to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, former Israeli General Matityahu Peled claimed that more than half of the border clashes before the 1967 war "were a result of our security policy of maximum settlement in the demilitarized area"[7]. Image:Syrian-bunker.jpg140 Israelis were killed and many more were injured in these attacks from 1949 to 1967.

During the Six-Day War of 1967 Syria's shelling greatly intensified and the Israeli army 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).

About 90% (147,000) of the Golan's inhabitants, mainly Druze Arabs and Circassians, fled during the Six-Day War. For various political reasons, Israel has not allowed them to return [8]. 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.

Image:300px-GolanHeights-tank.jpg

During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Syrian forces overran much of the southern Golan, before being pushed back by an Israeli counterattack. Israel and Syria signed a ceasefire agreement in 1974 that left almost all the Heights in Israeli hands, while returning a narrow demilitarized zone to Syrian control.

The Syrian citizens who remained in the area after it was captured by Israel in 1967 were required to carry Israeli military identity papers. In the late 1970s, the Likud government of Israel began pressuring them to request Israeli citizenship by tying it to privileges such as the right to obtain a drivers licence or to travel in Israel. In March 1981, the community leaders imposed a socio-religious ban on Israeli citizenship. Protests came to a head after the November 1981 annexation (or effective annexation, see above) of the Golan Heights by Israel. They included a general strike that lasted for five months and demonstrations that sometimes became violent. The Israeli authorities responded by placing the protest leaders in administrative detention and imposing curfews and other restrictions. On April 1, 1982, a 24-hour curfew was imposed and soldiers went from door to door confiscating the old ID cards and replacing them by cards signifying Israeli citizenship. This action caused an international outcry including two condemnatory UN resolutions [9] [10]. Israel eventually relented, allowing the Arabs to retain their Syrian citzenship and also agreeing not to force them to serve in the army. This is how the situation remains today.

Syria has always demanded a full Israeli withdrawal from all of the Golan Heights, to the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee (the 1949 armistice line). Successive Israeli governments have expressed support for 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. Prior to the 2000 negotiations, Hafez al-Assad did not offer travel and trade rights to Israelis, but in the 2000 negotiations he did agree to a peace deal of the same nature that Egypt and Jordan made.

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 fulfil our obligations to the Golan Heights. And to you residents — those who made the Golan Heights what it is — you have all my respect.

When interviewed about an upcoming conference on American TV network ABC on September 16, 1991, Syrian president Hafez al-Assad said:

The efforts currently exerted are based on the Security Council Resolutions N° 242 and N° 338 on the basis of realizing a comprehensive peace in the region. The Golan, as an occupied Syrian territory, shall be reinstated, within the framework of such comprehensive peace, to its natural status as part of Syrian territory. Upon implementing the comprehensive solution for the two Arab and Israeli sides, comprehensive peace will prevail and documents will be achieve peace process. This as you know will be decided within the Conference, the Israeli side on the one hand and the Arab side on the other.

Also regarding the Heights, when asked about military conflict in the area, Moshe Dayan stated :

It would happen like this: We would send a tractor to plow someplace of no value, in the demilitarized zone, knowing ahead of time that the Syrians would begin to shoot. If they did not start shooting, we would tell the tractor to keep going forward, until the Syrians in the end would get nervous and start shooting. And then we would start firing artillery, and later also the airforce, and this was the way it was. I did this, and Laskov and Tzur [two previous commanders-in-chief] did it. Yitzhak Rabin did it when he was there , but it seems to me that it was Dado, more than anyone else, who enjoyed these games.

However, Dayan also noted regarding the Israeli farmers who lived at the base of the Heights:

They suffered a lot because of the Syrians. Look, as I said before, they lived in the kibbutzim, they farmed, raised children, lived and wanted to live there. The Syrians opposite them were soldiers who shot at them and they certainly did not like this. But I can tell you in absolute certainly: the delegation that came to convince Eshkol to attack the Heights did not think about these things. It thought about the land on the Heights. Listen, I am also a farmer. I'm from Nahalal, not from Tel Aviv, and I recognize this. I saw them, and I talked to them. They did not even try to hide their greed for that soil. That's what guided them.

During US-brokered negotiations 1999-2000, Israel offered to return most of the Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for peace and full recognition. Syria refused. Syria offered full recognition and peace in exchange for a complete return to the pre-1967 borders. Israel refused.

In late 2003, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he was ready to revive peace talks with Israel. Israel demanded Syria first disarm Hizbullah, who launched many attacks on northern Israeli towns and army posts from Syrian and Lebanese territory. Peace talks were not initiated. The population currently resident in the Golan is, roughly speaking, half Druze and half Jewish.

Although the Golan Heights has generally been a peaceful area, a number of Golan residents from Majdal Shams have been jailed by the Israeli authorities for involvement in armed activities against the Israeli occupation. [11].

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Communities

The Golan Height's largest community and administrative center is the Jewish town of Qatzrin, built in the 1970s. The other Jewish communities are a number of kibbutzim and moshavim (agricultural communities). There are also four Druze and Circassian villages in the Northern part of the Golan Heights including Majdal Shams, and an Alawite village called Ghajar that stretches on both side of the Lebanese-Israeli border.

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