Syria: why Israel wants to strengthen its control over the Golan Heights

Take advantage of the wavering at the top of power in Damascus to grab territory in the Golan. This is the strategy implemented by Israel: since the fall of Bashar al-Assad on December 8, the Jewish state has strengthened its positions on this mountainous plateau. An area that he already largely controls, and whose total control would constitute an asset in more than one way.

A strategic location

This mountainous plateau, at the foot of Mount Hermon and its 2800m, is located at a diplomatic crossroads. And for good reason: four countries surround it. Namely Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan. It notably overlooks the Galilee and Lake Tiberias, in northern Israel, and commands the road to Damascus.

A territory partially controlled by Israel

For almost 60 years, the Jewish state has, little by little, extended its control. The Golan was in fact partly conquered from Syria in June 1967 during the third Arab-Israeli war. An additional pocket of approximately 510 km² was occupied by Israel during the Arab-Israeli War of October 1973, then evacuated in 1974, under a disengagement agreement creating a demilitarized buffer zone almost 80 kilometers long , in southwest Syria, along the part occupied by Israel. The peacekeepers of the United Nations Disengagement Observation Force (UNDF) are responsible for monitoring compliance with this agreement.

In addition, some 1,200 km² of the plateau, this time the border part of Lebanon and Jordan, was annexed by Israel in December 1981. A measure not recognized by the international community, apart from the United States since 2019.

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The desire to assert demographic domination

Over the decades, the population has continued to suffer the horrors of war. 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 in Israel. .

Since Assad's flight, Israel has taken responsibility: it wants to increase its population in the region. On Sunday, the government approved a project aimed at doubling the population in the annexed Golan, for a budget of 40 million shekels (10.6 million euros). Benjamin Netanyahu also assured that the annexed Golan would be Israeli.for eternity“.

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A security issue

The government considers that the collapse of the Assad government created a “empty on the border of Israel and in the buffer zone“. As a result, it has deployed troops, in theory for a temporary period, until security on the border between Israel and Syria can be guaranteed. It remains to be seen how long this mission will last: the Minister of of Defense, Israel Katz, instructed the army to “prepare to stay” in the buffer zone all winter. Note that the UN considers the takeover of the buffer zone as a “violation” of the 1974 disengagement agreement.

Coveted water resources

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.