Ramin Hossein Abadian, journalist and researcher
Since early June 1967, the strategic Syrian Golan Heights have been turned into a playground for the Zionist occupiers, as the Zionists brought the Golan under their full occupation from that time onward. The Golan Heights are located in southwestern Syria and border Palestine to the west, along the Jordan River and Lake Tiberias, Lebanon to the northwest, and Jordan to the south. The length of the Golan’s border with occupied Palestine is 80 kilometers.
Alteration, destruction, and plunder following occupation
From the very first day of its occupation of the Golan, the Zionist regime set out to alter the region’s geographic and demographic characteristics. These changes included the destruction of villages and farmlands, the construction of settlements and the encouragement of Zionist settlers to move in, the displacement of the indigenous population, and the manipulation of historical sites through excavations. The Zionist regime also seized full control of the Golan’s water resources, which accounted for 14 percent of Syria’s total water resources. This regime not only planted landmines in agricultural areas and around residential zones in the Golan, but also converted many of its villages and settlements into military bases.
Settlement construction as a means of consolidating occupation
The first Zionist settlements in the occupied Golan Heights were established on July 15, 1967, just one month after the end of the 1967 war. The Zionist regime viewed population growth in the occupied Golan through a security lens, meaning that it considered this increase in population to be one of the main and fundamental pillars of its own security. This approach continued during the October 1973 war and in the years that followed, leading the Zionists to place even greater emphasis on the continuation of settlement construction in the Golan. They sought to entrench their presence there. It was in that same year, 1973, that the Settlement Movement, known as “Harakat al-Istitan,” succeeded in influencing political circles and securing a government commitment to double the population of the Golan Heights within the span of one year. Yitzhak Rabin, the then prime minister of the Zionist regime, during his first visit to the Golan Heights in 1974, stated before settlers in this occupied region, that the Zionist regime did not establish permanent settlements in the Golan Heights in order to evacuate them or hand them over to others. These remarks clearly demonstrated that the Zionists were intent on consolidating their occupation of the Golan and had no intention of withdrawing from the lands seized from the Syrian people.
An uninvited guest who came to stay: Washington gives the green light to consolidation of occupation
In 1976, the Zionist regime presented a plan to establish a new settlement in the Golan under the name Katzrin. The plan involved the construction of a city with a population of more than twenty thousand settlers, who were to be housed in five thousand residential units. It also stipulated the establishment of the commercial and industrial institutions required for the settlement. In the early 1990s, the US gave the Zionists the green light for settlement construction in the Golan. At the same time, Zionist political officials also affirmed the consolidation of occupation in the region. Yitzhak Shamir, the then prime minister of the Zionist regime, emphasized during that period that the Zionist regime would not relinquish the Golan. Likewise, before him, Yitzhak Rabin had explicitly stated, that the Zionist regime should not give up the Golan even in exchange for peace. Therefore, the Zionists were an uninvited and ominous guest who came to the Golan with the intention of staying.
To consolidate their occupation, they also received the green light from the US, as in early 2019, Donald Trump, the then president of the US during his first term, formally recognized the sovereignty of the Zionist regime over the Golan Heights by signing an executive order. This move placed an official stamp of approval on the continuation of Zionist occupation and sought to legitimize it. Of course, the Zionist lobby in the US played a significant and influential role in securing Washington’s recognition of Tel Aviv’s occupation of the Golan. In this regard, Donald Trump, the president of the US, during his speech at the Israeli Knesset in mid-October, referred to Miriam Adelson, an American-Israeli businesswoman and billionaire, as someone who had demanded US recognition of the regime’s sovereignty over the Golan in return for providing financial support to his presidential election campaign in 2016.
Furthermore, even the fall of the Syrian government did not lead the Zionists to abandon their occupation of the Golan. Not only did they refuse to do so, but they also moved to intensify their policies in the region in order to further consolidate their occupation. As an example, on December 15, 2024, the cabinet of the Zionist regime approved a plan to increase the population of settlers in the occupied Golan Heights. The prime minister’s office of the regime announced in a statement that the cabinet unanimously approved a plan worth forty million shekels, equivalent to eleven million dollars, aimed at developing the demographic structure of the Golan and increasing its population.
Plundering oil and gas resources
The Zionist regime has consistently cast a covetous eye on the rich resources of the occupied Golan. The plundering of this occupied region’s resources, including its oil and gas, stands as clear evidence of this reality. Even media outlets affiliated with the Zionist regime have acknowledged the looting of the occupied Golan’s resources by the regime. In this context, the Zionist newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported in 2013 that regime’s Ministry of Energy had granted an oil drilling license in the Golan to the American Israeli company Genie Energy. Meanwhile, Jamal Zahalka, a former Arab member of the Knesset, described this move by Tel Aviv as clear proof of the occupiers’ intention to steal the Golan’s oil and exploit its natural resources, stating, that Tel Aviv is quietly exploiting the natural resources of the Golan. In addition, Mustafa Rostom, an Arabic language journalist, emphasizes that sources in Israeli media have revealed that the Zionist regime began efforts to drill for oil and gas in the occupied Golan in the early 1990s, particularly after the Knesset annexed the Golan to the regime on December 14, 1981. The discovery of oil in the Golan helps the Zionist regime reduce its dependence on foreign oil. The occupied Golan contains reserves of approximately one billion barrels of oil.
The theft of water resources
The Golan Heights rank first among Syria’s provinces in terms of soil fertility and natural wealth. The region also possesses abundant water resources supplied through rainfall and rivers, including the Jordan River, the Banias River, which is the second tributary of the Jordan River, and the Yarmouk River, which is fifty-seven kilometers long, forty-seven kilometers of which flows within Syrian territory, primarily through the Golan.
Reports indicate that by the end of June 1967, officials of the occupying regime conducted their first assessment of water conditions in the Golan Heights, during which nearly one hundred natural springs were identified. Beginning in 1968, the occupying authorities gradually started using Lake Masada as a major water source. They also constructed a station south of the lake to supply a network of pipelines that distributed water to settlers in the northern Golan. In this way, the Zionist regime was able to divert and deliver approximately one and a half million cubic meters of Golan water annually to settlers.
Following the law annexing the Golan to the occupied territories on December 14, 1981, the Zionist regime intensified its projects to exploit the resources of the Golan, to the extent that the occupied Syrian lands and their water resources were designated as the property of the regime. Reports show that the Zionist regime annually extracted sixty million cubic meters of water that flowed along the eastern slopes of the Golan into Syrian territory, leading to severe water shortages in these areas.
Overall, all domestic and international data indicate that the Zionist regime steals more than eight hundred thirteen million cubic meters of water annually from Syrian territory. This amount is equivalent to twenty-five to thirty percent of the regime’s total water consumption. Shimon Peres, the former president of the Zionist regime, stated in 1993 with regard to the water resources of the Golan, that water comes before land, and if we reach an agreement on land but not on water, we will realize that we have reached no real agreement. The remarks of this Zionist figure form the core of all projects that the Zionists have implemented and continue to implement to dominate all water resources in the Golan Heights.
The irony is that officials of the Zionist regime, including Benjamin Netanyahu, adopt a deceptive approach before public opinion by presenting themselves as pioneers in providing water to others, while in reality they officially meet the water needs of settlers in the occupied territories through the plunder of the resources of other lands, such as the Golan.
The Golan as regime’s playground even in the post-Assad era
Following the fall of Bashar al Assad, and under the policies of Syria’s new government led by Abu Mohammad al Julani, the Zionist regime, encountering no resistance to its field operations, did not withdraw from the occupation of the Golan. On the contrary, it expanded the scope of its occupation deeper into Syrian territory. This time, the Zionists seized additional strategic areas, including Jabal al Sheikh and Quneitra.
Accordingly, the regime not only showed no willingness to withdraw from the Golan or relinquish control over its resources, but went so far as to describe it as its permanent home. In this context, the prime minister of the Zionist regime, emphasized following the overthrow of Assad that the Golan Heights will remain the regime’s sovereignty forever. Under these circumstances, the Golan continues to serve as an open arena for the Zionist regime, enabling it to further plunder the region’s resources.
In any case, the Zionist regime’s pattern of conduct in the region has always been defined by the extraction of resources on the one hand, and the pursuit of political, security, and economic dominance on the other. Viewing this conduct within the framework of broader projects such as “Greater Israel” indicates that the Zionists are likely to adopt an even more covetous approach toward the region and its resources in the future. Should they succeed in bringing additional areas under their occupation, they would not hesitate for a moment to exploit and plunder the resources of those lands as well.
(The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.)
Comment