Forgotten Territory: The Political, Economic & Social Impact of the Israeli Occupation on the Golan Heights, Part 3: The Anatomy of Occupation

This six-part series looks into the past and present of the Syrian Golan Heights, which have been under Israeli military occupation since the 1967 war.

by Andrea Dillon

Part 3 of this on-going series on the Golan Heights continues to examine the parallels between Israel’s occupations of the Golan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Building on Part 2’s look at the similar policies used in these territories since 1967, Part 3 turns to the final parallel between Israeli engagement in these areas, namely its indirect siege of the local population. Though relatively better off than their Palestinian counterparts, many Golanese Arabs voice continuing frustrations with Israeli government policies that adversely impact their political, economic, and social wellbeing. In the name of protecting security concerns and maintaining access to the Golan’s valuable water resources, the Israeli government has employed tactics that have negatively impacted both the Golanese Arab population and the prospects for peace. Aggressive settlement building in the Golan Heights has been one such tactic. Today, 33 Jewish settlements in the Golan house 18,000 Israelis, a figure that is rapidly growing. By contrast, the Golan Heights contains a mere 5 Arab villages with 17,000 Druze residents. As Dr. Yigal Kipnis, an Israeli scholar of Syrian-Israeli relations living in the Jewish settlement of Maale Gamla in the Golan, notes, “the enormous psychological consequences of [this] situation” have prevented peace.¹