Golan Heights

Golan Heights
هَضْبَة الجَوْلَان
רָמַת הַגּוֹלָן
Location of the Golan Heights
Location of the Golan Heights
Coordinates: 33°00′N 35°45′E / 33.000°N 35.750°E / 33.000; 35.750
StatusSyrian territory, two-thirds of which occupied by Israel[1][2][a][b]
Area
 • Total
1,800 km2 (700 sq mi)
 • Occupied by State of Israel1,200 km2 (500 sq mi)
 • Controlled by Syrian Arab Republic (including de jure 235 km2 (91 sq mi) UNDOF Zone)600 km2 (200 sq mi)
Highest elevation
2,814 m (9,232 ft)
Lowest elevation
−212 m (−696 ft)
Population
of Israeli-occupied area[5][6][7][8]
 • Total
40,000–50,000+
 • Arabs (nearly all Druze)
20,000–25,700
 • Israeli Jewish settlers
c. 25,000
Time zoneUTC+2
 • Summer (DST)UTC+3

The Golan Heights (Arabic: هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, romanized: Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or مُرْتَفَعَاتُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Murtafaʻātu l-Jawlān; Hebrew: רמת הגולן, Ramat HaGolan, pronunciationⓘ), or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in the north and Wadi Raqqad in the east. Two thirds of the area has been occupied by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War and then effectively annexed in 1981 – an action unrecognized by the international community, which continues to consider it Israeli-occupied Syrian territory.

The earliest evidence of human habitation on the Golan dates to the Upper Paleolithic period.[9] During the Iron Age, it was home to biblical Geshur, which was later incorporated into Aram-Damascus.[10][11] After Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian rule, the region came under the control of Alexander the Great in 332 BC.[12][13] The Iturean kingdom and the Hasmonean dynasty briefly ruled the Golan, then the Roman Empire took control, first via the Herodian dynasty and then ruling directly.[14][15][16] Afterwards, the Byzantine-aligned Ghassanid kingdom ruled the Golan from the 3rd century AD, until the region was annexed by the Rashidun Caliphate during the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 7th century. The Umayyad Caliphate, Abbasid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate and the Mamluk Sultanate succeeded one another in control of the Golan, before the region was conquered by the Ottoman Empire In the 16th century.[17] Within Ottoman Syria, the Golan was part of the Syria Vilayet.[18] The area later became part of the French Mandate in Syria and the State of Damascus.[19] When the mandate terminated in 1946, it became part of the newly independent Syrian Arab Republic, spanning about 1,800 km2 (690 sq mi).

Since the Six-Day War of 1967, the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights has been occupied and administered by Israel,[1][2] whereas the eastern third remains under the control of Syria. Following the war, Syria dismissed any negotiations with Israel as part of the Khartoum Resolution at the 1967 Arab League summit.[20] Construction of Israeli settlements began in the remainder of the territory held by Israel, which was under a military administration until the Knesset passed the Golan Heights Law in 1981, which applied Israeli law to the territory;[21] the move has been described as an annexation. The Golan Heights Law was condemned by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 497,[2][22] which stated 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".

After the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011, control of the Syrian-administered part of the Golan Heights was split between the state government and Syrian opposition forces, with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) maintaining a 266 km2 (103 sq mi) buffer zone in between to help implement the Israeli–Syrian ceasefire across the Purple Line.[23] From 2012 to 2018, the eastern half of the Golan Heights became a scene of repeated battles between the Syrian Army, rebel factions of the Syrian opposition (including the United States-backed Southern Front) as well as various jihadist organizations such as al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant-affiliated Khalid ibn al-Walid Army. In July 2018, the Syrian government regained full control over the eastern Golan Heights.[24]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference occupiedSyrian was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference korman_condemned was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Trump signs decree recognizing Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights, Reuters, 25 March 2019
  4. ^ Lee, Matthew; Riechmann, Deb (25 March 2019). "Trump signs declaration reversing US policy on Golan Heights". AP NEWS. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  5. ^ "Israel approves plan to double settler population in Golan Heights". France 24. 26 December 2021.
  6. ^ "Israel to send 250,000 settlers to occupied Golan". www.aa.com.tr.
  7. ^ Statistical Abstract of Israel 2018, 2.17 Archived 20 November 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Israel Central Bureau of Statistics.
  8. ^ Golan Heights profile Archived 17 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine 25 March 2019 BBC
  9. ^ Tina Shepardson. Stones and Stories: Reconstructing the Christianization of the Golan, Archived 15 April 2001 at the Wayback Machine Biblisches Forum, 1999.
  10. ^ Kochavi, Moshe (1989). "The Land of Geshur Project: Regional Archaeology of the Southern Golan (1987–1988 Seasons)". Israel Exploration Journal. 39 (1/2): 3. ISSN 0021-2059. JSTOR 27926133.
  11. ^ Michael Avi-Yonah (1979). The Holy Land – from the Persian to the Arab Conquests (536 B.C. to A.D. 640) A Historical Geography, Grand Rapids, Michigan, p. 170 ISBN 978-0-8010-0010-2
  12. ^ HaReuveni, Immanuel (1999). Lexicon of the Land of Israel (in Hebrew). Miskal – Yedioth Ahronoth Books and Chemed Books. pp. 662–663 ISBN 978-965-448-413-8.
  13. ^ Vitto, Fanny, Ancient Synagogue at Rehov, Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem 1974
  14. ^ Gevirtz, Gila (2008). Jewish History: The Big Picture. Behrman House, Inc. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-87441-838-5.
  15. ^ Avraham Negev; Shimon Gibson (2005). Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land (Paperback ed.). Continuum. p. 249. ISBN 978-0-8264-8571-7.
  16. ^ Syon, Danny (2014). Gamla III: The Shmarya Gutmann Excavations, 1976–1989. Finds and Studies (PDF). Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority Reports, No. 56. ISBN 978-965-406-503-0. p. 4 "Scholarly consensus holds that the Golan became populated by Jews following the conquests of Jannaeus in c. 80 BCE and as a direct result of these conquests."
  17. ^ Butcher, Kevin (2003). Roman Syria and the Near East. Getty Publications. ISBN 978-0-89236-715-3.
  18. ^ Michael J. Cohen (1989). The Origins and Evolution of the Arab-Zionist Conflict. University of California Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-520-90914-4.
  19. ^ The French Mandate in Syria, 1925–26, New York: Editorial Information Service of the Foreign Policy Association, 1925, retrieved 16 November 2020
  20. ^ "This Week in History: The Arab League Three No's". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference MFA Law was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ "UN Security Council Resolution 497" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  23. ^ "Agreement on Disengagement between Israeli and Syrian Force". Report of the Secretary-General concerning the Agreement on Disengagement between Israeli and Syrian Forces. United Nations. Archived from the original on 21 April 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  24. ^ AP and TOI staff (31 July 2018). "Syria boots IS from Golan Heights, retaking full control of frontier with Israel". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 25 March 2019.


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