Golan Heights

The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant, spanning about eighteen hundred square kilometers (six hundred and ninety square miles).

The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between disciplines: as a geological and biogeographical region, the Golan Heights is a basaltic plateau bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon with Mount Hermon in the north and Wadi Raqqad in the east.

As a geopolitical region, the Golan Heights is the area captured from Syria and occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War, territory which has been administered as part of Israel since 1981.

This region includes the western two-thirds of the geological Golan Heights and the Israeli-occupied part of Mount Hermon.

The earliest evidence of human habitation on the Golan dates to the Upper Paleolithic period.

According to the Bible, an Amorite Kingdom in Bashan was conquered by Israelites during the reign of King Og.

After Assyrian and Babylonian rule, Persia dominated the region and allowed it to be resettled by returning Jews from the Babylonian Captivity.

The Itureans, an Arab or Aramaic people, settled there in the 2nd century BCE and remained until the end of the Byzantine period.

Gamla, the capital of Jewish Galaunitis, would play a major role in the Jewish-Roman wars, and came to house the earliest known urban synagogue from the Hasmonean/Herodian realm.

Organized Jewish settlement in the region comes to an end in 636 CE when it is conquered by Arabs under Umar ibn al-Khattāb.

In the sixteenth century, the Golan is conquered by the Ottoman Empire and is part of the Vilayet of Damascus until it is transferred to French mandate in 1918

the mandate terminates in 1946, it becomes part of the newly independent Syrian Republic.

Since the 1967 Six-Day War, the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights has been occupied and administered by Israel, whereas the eastern third remains under control of the Syrian Arab Republic.

Following the war, Syria dismisses any negotiations with Israel as part of the Khartoum Resolution.

Construction of Israeli settlements begins in the remainder of the territory held by Israel, which is under military administration until the Knesset passes the Golan Heights Law in 1981, which applies Israeli law to the territory; a move that has been described as an annexation.

This move is condemned by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 497, which states that "the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction, and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect", and Resolution 242, which emphasizes "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war".

Israel maintains it has a right to retain the Golan, also citing the text of UN Resolution 242, which calls for "safe and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force".

After the onset of the Syrian Civil War, control of the Syrian-administered part of the Golan Heights was split between the government and opposition forces, with the UNDOF maintaining a two hundred and sixty-six square kilometer (one hundred and three square miles) buffer zone in between, to implement the ceasefire of the Purple Line.

From 2012 to 2018, the eastern Golan Heights becomes a scene of repeated battles between the Syrian Arab Army, rebel factions of the Syrian opposition including the moderate Southern Front, jihadist al-Nusra Front, and ISIL-affiliated factions

July 2018, the Syrian government regains control of the eastern Golan Heights.

On March 25, 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump proclaims that "the United States recognizes that the Golan Heights are part of the State of Israel", making the United States the first country besides Israel to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

The twenty-eight member states of the European Union declare in turn they do not recognize Israeli sovereignty, and several Israeli experts on international law state  the principle remains that land gained by defensive or offensive wars cannot be legally annexed under international law.