In June 2019, the Israeli prime minister inaugurated the construction of a new settlement in the occupied Golan Heights named Ramat Trump (Trump Heights) in honor of the US president. At the time, many saw Netanyahu’s move as more of a theatrical gesture toward the only foreign leader who three months earlier had recognized the annexation of the Syrian territories he captured in the Six-Day War (1967). The occupied area, which constitutes two-thirds of the Golan, was unsuccessfully attempted to recapture in the Yom Kippur War (1973). have a total area of 1,800 sq. km., i.e. as much as half of Evia. From there originates the river Jordan which feeds the Sea of Galilee (the biblical lake of Gennesaret) and ends in the Dead Sea.
Before the 1967 war, the population of the Golan Heights amounted to 130,000-150,000 Arabs (among the local Druze as well as Palestinian refugees). Today, about 25,000 Druze live in the occupied Golan – some manning Israel’s army and others insisting on ties to Syria. Israel has built more than 30 illegal settlements housing some 25,000 settlers, including a dozen families in Ramat Trump, which has not seen much development, despite a spectacular opening. Around the settlement, as in other areas of the Golan, there are scattered ruins of Arab villages. He comes from a family of Golan refugees.
From the hottest zones
For decades, the Golan was one of the “hottest” zones in and on the planet. The Syrian regime was showing foreign official visitors and journalists the ruins of the city of Quneitra, which the Israelis leveled with explosives. From then on, a force of about 1,000 blue helmets (UNDOF) monitored from 50 posts the demilitarized zone (80 km long and 0.5 to 10 km wide) as well as the observance of restrictions on the deployment of military forces on either side.
The situation in the Golan changed in 2011 when the fighting reached the demilitarized zone. The Israeli armed forces, on the one hand, carried out small-scale “humanitarian” operations to “rescue” trapped people and transport the wounded to hospitals, on the other hand, they escalated the bombings against positions of Hezbollah and Iranian supporters of the regime, weakening the government camp, while from time to time, positions of Islamists were also attacked.
Doubling the settlers
After the fall of the Assad regime, the Israeli army bombed military infrastructure throughout Syria, occupied the demilitarized zone, bringing almost the entire Golan under its control, and set up an outpost on top of Mount Hermon (on the Syria-Lebanon border) creating a temporary “bulk” » for jihadist and other extremist groups. Tel Aviv has gained greater strategic depth and is creating accomplishments on the ground. The Arab world accuses Israel of systematically violating international legitimacy and undermining efforts to stabilize Syria, while in Damascus, Jolani said that his overworked country is not in a position to fight another war.
The Netanyahu government this week announced an economic package and incentives aimed at doubling the number of settlers in the Golan, while Defense Minister Israel Katz explained that the Israeli soldiers deployed on Mount Hermon will remain there throughout the winter. Nothing is more permanent than temporary, especially when one of the settlements in the Golan bears the name of the new US president.
