Global InformationGolan Heights information
Golan Heights
هَضْبَة الجَوْلَان רָמַת הַגּוֹלָן | |
|---|---|
 Location of the Golan Heights | |
| Coordinates: 33°00′N 35°45′E / 33.000°N 35.750°E | |
| Status | Internationally recognized as Syrian territory occupied by Israel[1][2][a][b] |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1,800 km2 (700 sq mi) |
| • Occupied by State of Israel | 1,200 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 zone | UTC+2 |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 |
The Golan Heights,[c] or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about 1,800 km2 (690 sq mi). The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between disciplines: as a geological and biogeographical region, the term refers to a basaltic plateau bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon with Mount Hermon in the north and Wadi Raqqad in the east. As a geopolitical region, it refers to the border region captured from Syria by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967; the territory has been occupied by the latter since then and was subject to a de facto Israeli annexation in 1981. This region includes the western two-thirds of the geological Golan Heights and the Israeli-occupied part of Mount Hermon.
The earliest evidence of human habitation on the Golan dates to the Upper Paleolithic period.[9] After Assyrian and Babylonian rule, the region came under the domination of Persia, and later under the control of Alexander the Great in 332 BC.[10][11][12] The Itureans, an Arab or Aramaic people, settled in the area in the 2nd century BC.[13][14][15] By the third century AD, the Christian Arab Ghassanid kingdom controlled the Golan.[16] The region was later annexed by the Rashidun Caliphate during the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the early seventh century. In the 16th century, the Golan was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. Within Ottoman Syria, the Golan was part of the Syria Vilayet.[17] The area later became part of the French Mandate in Syria and the State of Damascus.[18] When the mandate terminated in 1946, it became part of the newly independent Syrian Arab Republic.
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.[19] 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;[20] the move has been described as an annexation. The Golan Heights Law was condemned by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 497,[2][21] 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", and Resolution 242, which emphasizes the "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war". Israel maintains it has a right to retain the Golan, also citing the text[22] of Resolution 242, which calls for "secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force".[23]
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.[24] 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.[25]
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
occupiedSyrianwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference
korman_condemnedwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Trump signs decree recognizing Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights, Reuters, 25 March 2019
- ^ Lee, Matthew; Riechmann, Deb (25 March 2019). "Trump signs declaration reversing US policy on Golan Heights". AP NEWS. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
- ^ "Israel approves plan to double settler population in Golan Heights". France 24. 26 December 2021.
- ^ "Israel to send 250,000 settlers to occupied Golan". www.aa.com.tr.
- ^ Statistical Abstract of Israel 2018, 2.17 Archived 20 November 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Israel Central Bureau of Statistics.
- ^ Golan Heights profile Archived 17 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine 25 March 2019 BBC
- ^ Tina Shepardson. Stones and Stories: Reconstructing the Christianization of the Golan, Archived 15 April 2001 at the Wayback Machine Biblisches Forum, 1999.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Vitto, Fanny, Ancient Synagogue at Rehov, Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem 1974
- ^ 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
- ^ Avraham Negev; Shimon Gibson (2005). Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land (Paperback ed.). Continuum. p. 249. ISBN 978-0-8264-8571-7.
- ^ Dan Urman; Paul Virgil McCracken Flesher (1998). Ancient synagogues: historical analysis and archaeological discovery. BRILL. p. 423. ISBN 978-90-04-11254-4. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
- ^ Eric M. Meyers (1996). The Oxford encyclopedia of archaeology in the Near East. Vol. 2 (Hardcover ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 421. ISBN 978-0-19-511216-0.
- ^ Butcher, Kevin (2003). Roman Syria and the Near East. Getty Publications. ISBN 978-0-89236-715-3.
- ^ 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.
- ^ The French Mandate in Syria, 1925–26, New York: Editorial Information Service of the Foreign Policy Association, 1925, retrieved 16 November 2020
- ^ "This Week in History: The Arab League Three No's". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
MFA Lawwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "UN Security Council Resolution 497" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
- ^ "S/RES/242 (1967) of 22 November 1967". unispal.un.org. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
- ^ Y.Z Blum "Secure Boundaries and Middle East Peace in the Light of International Law and Practice" (1971) pages 24–46
- ^ "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.
- ^ 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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