The Importance of the Occupied Golan Heights

Will a New Israeli Government Pull Out of Syrian Territory?

Feb 15, 2009

As the Middle East waits anxiously for a new Israeli government to be formed, a number of political statements have been made about the Israeli occupied Golan Heights.

Current favourite to be Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, (Likud Party) has said he would not give up the Golan Heights in exchange for a peace agreement with Syria. His rival for the premiership Tzipi Livni (Kadima Party) has not ruled out returning the Golan Heights for a full peace with Syria.

Netanyahu’s position has radically changed since his defeat in the 1999 election when he admitted holding secret talks with Syrian President Hafez Assad about the possibility of an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, while still retaining an early warning radar station in the area. Unsurprisingly Assad pushed for a complete return to pre -1967 borders and the talks came to nothing.

A Brief Recent History of the Golan Heights

In 1922 the League of Nations approved the awarding to Great Britain of a mandate to control Palestine. However within a year, political manoeuvring meant the Golan Heights were transferred to Syria, which was, at that time, controlled by a French mandate that lasted until Syrian independence in April 1946.

The maps were again redrawn in 1948, when the state of Israel was carved out of part of British mandated Palestine.

Before 1967 the Syrian controlled Golan Heights, which rise to 1700 feet and overlook Israel’s lush Huleh Valley, was a strategically vital military vantage point that allowed the Syrian army to snipe and shell Israelis living below.

However victory in the 1967 Arab Israeli Six Day War saw large territorial gains for Israel with East Jerusalem and the West Bank captured from Jordan and the Golan Heights, on Israel’s northern border taken from Syria.

On 6 October 1973 — Yom Kippur, probably the holiest day in the Jewish year, the Middle East was again at war after a sudden surprise attack was launched by Egypt and Syria. On the Golan Heights the Syrian army pushed the Israelis back, almost to the escarpment, before Israeli re-enforcements regained control and reversed Syrian territorial gains. The following year both sides signed a Separation of Forces Agreement, which still remains in force.

There were no further changes in the area until December 1981 when the Knesset voted to formally annex the Golan Heights and replace military rule with a civilian administration.

What Would Israel be Giving up if They Handed Back the Heights?

There is a powerful argument from manyIsraeli politicians that if they gave up the Golan Heights they would lose the advantage that the early warning station on Mount Hermon, the highest point on the Heights, provides and leave themselves open to Syrian or terrorist attack.

Current Syrian President Bashar Assad has said: “We would like to contribute to stabilising the region.” However rather more worryingly for Israel he has also said in an interview with Spiegel Online: “ We Syrians see it this way, we do not recognise Israel and Israel is our enemy, it occupies part of our country, the Golan Heights.”

Such rhetoric from Syria will not make the decision for the new Israeli prime minister, as to whether they should remain in the Golan Heights or not, a difficult one.

The copyright of the article The Importance of the Occupied Golan Heights in Middle Eastern History is owned by Neil Gunn. Permission to republish The Importance of the Occupied Golan Heights in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.