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Fact Sheet

The Golan Heights

“The Golan Heights represents a vital strategic asset for Israel’s security”– Lt. Col. (ret) David Eshel, 2008

 

 

Golan Heights—modern period:

1516-1917 Ottoman Empire (9 years under Egyptian rule 1831-1840)

                  1886 First Jewish settlement established in the Golan in the modern period

                                    Jews from Tzfat (Safed) bought land in Ramtaniya and built a village called Golan BeBashan

                  1887 Jews buy Bedouin town of Bir Ashkum

                        1891 Baron Edmund de Rothschild purchases 18,000 acres of land on the Golan

                        1898 Turks (Damascus Pasha) force all Jews to leave the area http://english.golan.org.il/ts.exe?tsurl=0.181.635.0.0

1917-1948 British Mandate

1917 Division of the Ottoman Empire creates a British Mandate (Palestine) and a French Mandate (Syria)

1920 San Remo Conference:  Britain received Palestine Mandate

            “agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917... in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/palmanda.htm

1922 Palestine Mandate confirmed by the League of Nations

1923 Britain trades the Golan Heights, which had been designated as part of the Mandate, to France in exchange for oil rich lands in Mosul http://www.peacefaq.com/golan.html

                        1946 All Jewish land ownership in the Golan is nullified by the new state of Syria at the end of the French Mandate

1948-now  Israel and Syria

      1949 Armistice agreement between Israel and Syria, with Syria holding the Golan Heights & Israel holding small strip of land along edge of Lake Kinneret lake (Sea of Galilee), between 10 meters and 2 kilometers wide

      1949-52 Syria captures and occupies area of Hamat Gader & northeastern shore of Kinneret lake & remains there

                  1967 Six-Day War in which Israel takes over the plateau of the Golan Heights

                  1973 Yom Kippur War in which Israel establishes a defense line 20 miles from Damascus

1974 Syrian-Israeli Disengagement Agreement http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/Israel+in+Maps/May+1974+Israel-Syria+Disengagement+Agreement.htm
 

1974 United Nations Disengagement Observer Force stationed in demilitarized zone, mandate renewed every six months http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/undof/index.html

 

1981 Israel replaces military rule in the Golan with civilian rule with the enactment of the Golan Law http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/Golan+Heights+Law.htm

 

                  1981 After a letter from the Syrian representative, the UN rejects Israel’s civilian rule over the Golan with Resolution 497 http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/73d6b4c70d1a92b7852560df0064f101?OpenDocument

 

                  2008 Israel and Syria are in indirect negotiations regarding the Golan Heights for the first time in eight years http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0522/p04s04-wome.html

 

 

Geography:

High Point:      Mt. Hermon 7,315 feet (2,224 meters) above sea level

Low Points:     Hula Valley 230 feet (70 meters) above sea level;  Sea of Galilee 686 feet (209 meters) below sea level

Elevation range of the Golan plateau:  400 feet (122 meters) to 1,700 feet (518 meters)

Approximately 40 miles (64 kilometers) long and 15 miles (24 kilometers) wide

Total area:                    440 square miles (1,158 square kilometers)

 

  

 

 

Map references:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_Heights; http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/golan_hts.html (last 2 maps)

 

Security Issues:

 

Geo-strategic facts:

1.Maintaining control of the high ground is a security concern for Israel.  From the highest points in the Golan, the IDF can spot an overland attack from Syria or Lebanon. Thus, the Golan can be described as literally the "Eyes of Israel."

2.The watershed of the Golan feeds the Sea of Galilee (as well as the Jordan River and its various tributaries) which is the primary source of freshwater for Israel.  This is not a replaceable source.  (As opposed to Syria which gets the vast majority of its water from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the East and the Orontes in the North.)  In 1964, Syria diverted water from two tributaries, the Hasbani and Banyas Rivers, of the Jordan River.

3.Conflict over the “International Border” and the “June 4, 1967 Border” (see map and article at the end of the Jerusalem Issue Brief)

4.Leaving the Golan would leave Israel's northern Galilee open to bombardment from the Heights.

http://www.defense-update.com/analysis/analysis_040508_golan.htm and http://english.golan.org.il/ts.exe?tsurl=0.184.3016.0.0

When the Golan was in Syrian hands from 1949 to 1967, the citizens of Israel who lived near the Sea of Galilee were under a constant and random barrage of rockets and sniper fire even though there was a cease-fire agreement in July 1949.  See http://english.golan.org.il/ts.exe?tsurl=0.184.3016.0.0 for an extensive, but not exhaustive, list of Syrian attacks. Briefly, they included firing on fishermen in the Sea of Galilee, attacks on Israeli farmers that forced these farmers to use armored tractors, and the firing of over 1,000 shells on the Hula Valley in November-December 1958, killing 31 people.

 

Economy:

 

Mineral water

50% of the Israeli market

Wine grapes

21% o the Israeli wine market

38%of Israeli wine exports

Corn industry

23% of the Israeli market

Beef cattle

40% of the Israeli market

Milk Production

6% of the Israeli market

Apples

30% of the Israeli market

Pears

41% of the Israeli market

Cherries

50% of the Israeli market

Mangoes

32% of the Israeli market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Over 1,000 businesses, employing over 6,000 people producing 1.6 billion shekels per year.

 

  • 2.1 million visitors annually visit the Golan region, providing the 207 tourism-related businesses (employing over 700 people) income and incentive to add to the over 1,000 accommodations available in the area.

 

http://english.golan.org.il/vaad/efacts.asp

 

Fast Facts:

50 miles (80 kilometers) of border with Syria

41,400 people live in the Golan Sub-District

43.5 % Jewish - 33 communities (10 Kibbutzim, 19 Moshavim, 2 Community villages, and 2 towns)

5.5 % Muslim (according to latest estimates)

21% of the Golan is a Nature Reserve

40% of the Golan is Pasture Land

100 square kilometers (38 square miles) of agricultural land (80% Jews, 20% Druze)

http://www.cbs.gov.il/population/new_2009/table1.pdf/

http://english.golan.org.il/

http://www1.cbs.gov.il/shnaton57/st02_07x.pdf /

 

 

Golan in the Bible:

 

“Golan in the Bashan” is mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible (Deuteronomy 4:43, Joshua 21:27, Chronicles 6:56) referring to a city of refuge.  (Bashan is one of the names of the area given to the sons of Gershom of the Manasseh Tribe.)  Archeological excavations have revealed remains of over 20 synagogues & communities on the Golan.

Gamla, in the lower Golan, shows archeological evidence of a 1st century synagogue as well as several mikves (ritual baths) providing evidence that Jews lived and thrived there until 67CE when the Romans destroyed the city which tried to resist.  According to Josephus (who was the Jewish commander at Gamla) 9,000 people died there.  One of the main products of Gamla was oil.  There is evidence that olive oil for the Temple was produced here.  http://www.jewishmag.com/40mag/gamla/gamla.htm

 

[Ein Gev (Cistern Spring) on the shores of the Kinneret came into being on 6 July 1937 during the British Mandate of Palestine as a tower and stockade settlement, a common debut for many kibbutzim during that era, and quickly established itself as a viable community.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ein_Gev ]