Who owns golan heights

An armistice line was established and the region came under Israeli military control. Almost immediately Israel began to settle the Golan. Syria tried to retake the Golan Heights during the Middle East war. Despite inflicting heavy losses on Israeli forces, the surprise assault was thwarted. Both countries signed an armistice in and a UN observer force has been in place on the ceasefire line since Israel unilaterally annexed the Golan Heights in The move was not recognised internationally, although the US Trump Administration did so unilaterally in March There are more than 30 Jewish settlements on the heights, with an estimated 20, settlers.

There are some 20, Syrians in the area, most of them members of the Druze sect. Southern Syria and the capital Damascus, about 60 km 40 miles north, are clearly visible from the top of the Heights while Syrian artillery regularly shelled the whole of northern Israel from to when Syria controlled the Heights. DW explains why the contested territory matters. The annexation was not recognized internationally and UN Security Council Resolutions determined Israeli sovereignty over the area to be null and void pending negotiations with Syria.

Syria failed to regain control over the Golan in the Arab-Israeli war, which ended in a armistice and placement of a UN observer force along the ceasefire line. Syria demands the return of all or part of the territory in exchange for any future peace deal with Israel. Repeated indirect and direct peace talks between Israel and Syria have failed to reach an agreement.

There are about 40, people living in the Golan. Around half of them are Jewish settlers. The rest are Druze and a small minority of Alawites. Druze are Arabs who practice an offshoot of Islam. Many of them consider themselves Syrian.

Alawites are a branch of Shiite Islam. Syrian President Bashar Assad and key figures in his regime are Alawites. On May 14, , David Ben-Gurion, future first prime minister of Israel, declares the state's independence, outlining the Jewish story: "The people kept faith with the land throughout their dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.

While the controversial idea of a God-given land for Jews has biblical roots, the Holocaust was a close, powerful backdrop for the significance of Israel's founding. Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews across Europe, and those who survived the concentration camps endured expulsion and forced labor. The above photo shows survivors of the Auschwitz camp following liberation. That is the word that Palestinians and their supporters use to mark Israel's independence.

About , Arabs living in Palestine at the time fled as waves of Jewish immigrants arrived to settle in the new Jewish state. The birth of Israel was the start of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which remains unresolved 70 years later despite numerous attempts. These land collectives, known as kibbutzim in the plural, were established across Israel following independence.

Many were run by secular or socialist Jews in an effort to realize their vision of society. Victory leads to occupation — and more tension and conflict. Israel's settlement policy worsens the conflict with Palestinians. Due to development and expansion of Jewish areas on occupied Palestinian land, the Palestinian Authority accuses Israel of making a future Palestinian state untenable.

Israel has largely ignored the international community's criticism of its settlement policy, arguing new construction is either legal or necessary for security. In winter , Palestinians begin mass protests of Israel's ongoing occupation. In reality, Iran wants to avoid a direct military confrontation with Israel over the Golan Heights, as it knows Israel comfortably outweighs it on technical military might.

Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. Abdulaziz Alghashian , University of Essex.

After annexing the Golan, Israel gave the Druze the option of citizenship, but most rejected it and still identify as Syrian. About another 20, Israeli settlers also live there, many of them working in farming and tourism. Before the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in , there was an uneasy stand-off between Israeli and Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. But in anti-government Islamist rebels overran Quneitra province on the Syrian side.

The Separation of Forces Agreement of May 31, created an Alpha Line to the west of the area of separation, behind which Israeli military forces must remain, and a Bravo Line to the east behind which Syrian military forces must remain.