Since the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Israeli authorities have taken steps to strengthen their military and civilian presence in the Golan, partly captured by Israel from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and annexed to both. third in 1981.
This mountainous territory is strategic for both countries. Rich in water, it overlooks the Galilee and Lake Tiberias, in northern Israel, and commands the road to Damascus. Mount Hermon rises to an altitude of 2,224 meters.
Conquered and annexed
Highly coveted over the centuries, occupied by Herod, by the Franks and the Ottomans then by Syria in 1946, the Golan (biblical name of this region) was conquered on June 9, 1967 by Israel after fighting with the Syrian army.
An additional pocket of approximately 510 km2 was occupied by Israel during the October War of 1973, then returned in 1974, under an agreement, with a small part of the territories occupied in 1967.
The 1974 agreement created a nearly 80-kilometer-long demilitarized buffer zone in southwest Syria, where a UN disengagement observation force is tasked with monitoring compliance with the agreement. .
Some 1200 km2 of the Golan Heights, also bordering Lebanon and Jordan, were on the other hand annexed by Israel on December 14, 1981, a measure not recognized by the international community, apart from the United States since 2019.
Tens of thousands of Syrians fled or were expelled during the 1967 war. Others remained in the part controlled by Israel.
Today, around 30,000 Israeli citizens live in 34 localities of the annexed Golan, to which are added 23,000 Druze, a community whose religion comes from Islam, who mostly claim to be Syrian while having the status of residents of Israel.
The overthrow of Assad has reshuffled the cards.
On Sunday, the Israeli government approved a project aimed at doubling the population in the annexed Golan (see box), for a budget of 40 million shekels (15.8 million Canadian dollars).
Syrian conflict
The change of power in Damascus also changed the situation on a military level.
The ceasefire line was considered relatively calm until the Syrian civil war in 2011.
Tensions were reignited when Hezbollah and Iran, two great enemies of Israel, moved closer to the Assad clan. And since the start of the war in Gaza triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Lebanese Islamist movement has fired several times in the direction of the Golan.
On December 8, a few hours after the fall of Assad, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had ordered the army to “take control” of the buffer zone, stressing that the presence of Israeli troops there was temporary. , until security in the area can be guaranteed.
The next day, he affirmed that the annexed Golan belonged to Israel “for eternity”. His Defense Minister, Israel Katz, indicated on December 13 that he had instructed the army to “prepare for [y] stay” all winter.
The UN considers the takeover of the buffer zone a “violation” of the 1974 disengagement agreement.
Eau
The Golan is home to important springs, particularly those of Banyas, which feeds the Jordan River. The Hasbani, which has its source in Lebanon, crosses the Golan before emptying into the Jordan, as does the Dan River.
In the mid-1960s, the water issue was one of the main causes of the Israeli-Syrian dispute, with Damascus accusing Israel of having diverted the sources of the Jordan.
In the 1990s, Israeli-Syrian negotiations broke down on the question of the Golan, for which Syria is demanding total restitution up to the shores of Lake Tiberias.
Apple production is an important source of income for Syrian farmers remaining in the occupied part of the stony Golan.
