Golan Heights

    Summary: The Golan Heights is a strategic plateau at the southwest tip of Syria bordering on Israel. It was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and formally annexed by Israel in 1982. The area has been a persistent impediment to a peace treaty between the two nations. Israel has previously offered to restore Syrian control over most of the territory in exchange for a peace agreement, but not a narrow slice of land next to the Sea of Galilee, a critical water source for Israel. The issue of Golan rose again in April and May 2008 when Israel and Syria announced they had resumed peace talks, with Turkish mediation, after an eight-year hiatus. In 2011, the Syrian civil war began, hindering peace talks, and in 2019, U.S. President Trump officially recognized Israel's annexation of Golan Heights.

    The Golan Heights is a rocky plateau overlooking northern Israel that was captured by Israel from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and occupied by Israel ever since except for a brief period during the Middle East War of 1973. The territory has long been regarded as an impediment to a peace agreement between Israel and Syria like those concluded with Jordan and Egypt. A United Nations armistice force has patrolled a narrow strip of land separating the Golan Heights from Syria since 1974.

    Lebanon claims a small portion of the Golan Heightscalled Shab'a Farms The Lebanese group Hezbollah cites this claim as its justification for refusing to disarm its militia as other Lebanese parties did after the civil war of 1976-1991.

    The Golan Heights comprises about 480 square miles (1,250 square kilometers). In the 2010s and early 2020s, the area was occupied by about 2,000 Israelis living in about forty-two settlements and about 20,000 Arabs. Syria claims about 100,000 Arabs evacuated the Golan Heights in 1967, with 80,000 going into Syria and 20,000 into Lebanon. Israel officially annexed the territory in 1982 but did not gain international recognition for the redrawn border.

    The location of the Golan Heights gives it strategic significance well beyond its size:

    • Its elevation overlooking northern Israel made it a site for Syrian artillery barrages against Israel on the occasions when the two states were at war (1948, 1967, and 1973). The Israeli foreign ministry published a statement declaring, "Israeli presence in the Golan Heights provides a defensible border against invasion by land.
    • The Jordan River flows through the Golan Heights into the Sea of Galilee, which supplies about one-third of Israel's drinking water. Some Israelis strongly object to giving Syria control over the sea's eastern shore, which has long been an issue of contention in a possible peace settlement between Israel and Syria.
    • Lebanon claimed a small part of the area called Shab'a Farmscalled Har Dov, or Mount David by Israelis. The area, measuring less than ten square miles (twenty-five square kilometers), comprised fourteen farms south of the Lebanese village of Shab'a that lies northeast of Israel's 1948 border. The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah has cited this claim as its reason not to dismantle as other Lebanese militias have. On the other hand, both the 1923 demarcation line set by Britain and France after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire and the 1948 cease-fire line after Israel's war of independence showed the area to be part of Syria. Syria and Lebanon have said the site was given by Syria to Lebanon in 1951 without clear contemporary documentation—maps published as late as the 1960s showed the area on the Syrian side of the border. In October 2000, the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations sent a letter to the Security Council which said, in part, "What is threatening security and peace in the region is the fact that Israel is continuing to overlook the resolutions of international legitimacy, particularly Resolutions 242 and 338. It has not completed the withdrawal from south Lebanon to the internationally recognized borders, including the Shab'a farms." This sentence was regarded as a Syrian concession that the disputed area belonged to Lebanon, not Syria.

    Golan Heights and Peace Negotiations. In May 2008, Turkey served as a mediator between Syria and Israel in negotiations held in Istanbul to reach a permanent peace treaty. The status of the Golan Heights emerged as the most significant potential obstacle to a settlement, just as it had in previous negotiations between the two sides that ended in 2000. Israel has long insisted on controlling a strip of the land adjacent to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, north of the border Syria claims. Syria insisted on the pre-1967 border on the northeastern coast of the sea.

    On April 23, 2008, Syrian Expatriate Affairs Minister Buthaina Shaaban said on Al Jazeera television that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "is ready for peace with Syria on the grounds of international conditions; on the grounds of the return of the Golan Heights in full to Syria." The Syrian official said Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, acting as a mediator in the dispute (Turkey has relations with Syria and Israel), had conveyed Olmert's message. The Damascus newspaper Al Watan said Olmert told Erdogan, "Israel was ready to withdraw completely from the Golan in exchange for peace with Syria." The Israeli government did not deny the reports, but the comment quickly brought protests from conservatives inside Israel, where conservative ministers insisted it be submitted to a popular referendum.

    The Israeli-Syrian peace settlement had implications for United States policy in the region. The George W. Bush administration had long portrayed Syria as an ally of Iran in the political struggle over Iraq and Hezbollah's efforts to increase political power in LebanonIran is a leading supporter of Hezbollah and supplies it with arms shipped via Syria. A peace agreement between Syria and Israel could place Syria in the same camp as other Arab stateslike Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egyptand serve to counter Iran's influence in the region.

    As preliminary negotiations in April were reported, the United States publicized what it said was evidence that Syria had been developing a nuclear power capability in a plant that Israel had bombed in September 2007. The Washington report, which the administration said had been kept secret for seven months to avoid Syrian retaliation, was interpreted by some administration critics as an effort to discourage peace talks between Israel and Syria. In April, an Israeli government spokesman said of the mediated discussions, "Israel wants peace with Syria; we are interested in a negotiated process. The Syrians know our expectations well, and we know their expectations well."

    These talks continued through 2008 until Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's resignation. In June 2009, Israel offered no outlet for peace talks, according to Syria. Though President Obama prioritized aiding in the facilitation of peace talks between Syria and Israel, the Syrian Civil War began in 2011, and successful negotiations were never possible. Tension and fighting continued through the 2010s.

    Through most of the 2010s, the issue of the Golan Heights decreased in the levels of violent confrontation and acrimony that had marked it in earlier periods. This was partly due to the civil war in Syria and other parts of the region. Other issues predominate and preoccupy the region beyond the control over this stretch of contested land.  

    In 2019, the U.S. became the first country to recognize Israel’s annexation of the area.

    In 2024, the Golan Heights once again became a flash point between Israel and its neighbors. This stemmed from the ongoing conflict that had embroiled Israel and the Palestinian population of Gaza following the October 7, 2023, assault on Israel by the Hamas organization. This bitter conflict was recognized for the risks of expansion into a more serious regional conflict. Iran's ongoing effort to secure regional influence, particularly through proxies such as the Lebanese group Hizbollah, also added to the area's volatility. On July 26, 2024, a rocket fired from Lebanon struck a soccer field located in the Israeli-controlled portion of the Golan Heights. The attack killed twelve people, most of who were children. Israel reportedly responded by assassinating Ismail Haniyeh, a high-ranking member of Hamas, while in residence in Tehran, Iran. The attack served to strike an Israeli blow to two of its nemesis. The Iranian government quickly vowed retribution on Israel, which it blamed for the death of Haniyeh. This prompted speculation that Iran would soon attempt another aerial and missile attack on Israel, as it had attempted earlier in 2024. A U.S. Navy battle group was deployed to the area.    

    Bibliography

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    Humphries, Isabelle. "Breaching Borders: The Role of Water in the Middle East Conflict." Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, vol. 25, no. 7, 2006, p. 2.

    Humphries, Isabelle. "In the Ghost Towns of the Occupied Golan, Five Villages Defiantly Wave the Syrian Flag." Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, vol. 25, no. 6, Aug. 2006, p. 2.

    "Israel." CIA World Factbook, 26 Sept. 2023, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/israel. Accessed 3 Oct. 2023.

    Rasgon, Adam and Aaron Boxerman. "Rocket From Lebanon Kills at Least 12 in Israeli-Controlled Golan Heights." New York Times, 27 July 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/07/27/world/middleeast/israel-golan-heights-lebanon-rocket.html. Accessed 22 Aug. 2024.

    Yeung, Jessie. "Who Was Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas Political Leader Killed in Tehran?" CNN, 31 July 2024, www.cnn.com/2024/07/31/middleeast/ismail-haniyeh-death-hamas-profile-intl-hnk/index.html. Accessed 22 Aug. 2024.