The United Nations, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the Arab League, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch consider the Golan Heights to be territory occupied by Israel and not part of Israel proper. Israel has controlled most of the Golan since the Six Day War in 1967.
Starting in the 1970s, new Jewish settlements were established in the captured area. "Golan Heights" A Dictionary of Contemporary World History . Jan Palmowski. Oxford University Press, 2003. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.
The Golan Heights is bordered on the west by a rock escarpment that drops 1,700 feet (500 m) to the Jordan River valley and the Sea of Galilee.
Haim Gvirtzman, Israel Water Resources, Chapters in Hydrology and Environmental Sciences , Yad Ben-Zvi Press, Jerusalem [2] indicates that the Golan Heights contributes no more than 195 million m per year to the Sea of Galilee, as well as another 120 million m per year from the Banias River tributary. Israel's annual water consumption is about 2,000 million m.
In that year, Israel passed the Golan Heights Law, Golan Heights Law , MFA.
Ghajar: 773 [3] ; Majdal Shams: 228 [4] ; Buq'ata: 279 [5] ; Mas'ada: less than 100 [6] ; Ein Qinya: less than 100 [7] . For age structure, see [8] . For population in 1999, see In 2005 the Golan Heights had a population of approximately 38,900, including approximately 19,300 Druze, 16,500 Jews, and 2,100 non-Druze Muslims, mainly Alawites.
This area forms 30% of the Golan Heights The Middle East and North Africa 2003, Occupied Territories, The Golan Heights, page 604.
From the Sea of Galilee north to Lake Hula the boundary was drawn between 50 and 400 meters east of the upper Jordan River, keeping that stream entirely within the British Mandate. The British also received a sliver of land along the Yarmouk River, out to the present-day Hamat Gader. From the perspective of the Palestinian mandate, no consideration appeared to be given to the future need to defend these boundariesthe strip of beach, the thin sliver along the Yarmouk, and the narrow strip to the east of the Jordan, all on ground lying well below the French-held Golan Heights and totally incapable of being fortified.
From the UN perspective, Shebaa remains Syrian until the Syrian government confirms its position through official channels. Israel considers the area to be a part of the Golan Heights, and therefore not Lebanese territory.
The Golan Heights thus became part of the French Mandate of Syria, while the Sea of Galilee was placed entirely within the British Mandate of Palestine. When the French Mandate of Syria ended in 1944, the Golan Heights became part of the newly independent state of Syria.
In the late 1970s, the Likud government of Israel began pressuring them to request Israeli citizenship by tying it to privileges such as the right to obtain a driver's license or to travel in Israel. In March 1981, the community leaders imposed a socio-religious ban on Israeli citizenship. Protests came to a head after the November 1981 effective annexation of the Golan Heights by Israel. They included a general strike that lasted for five months and demonstrations that sometimes became violent. The Israeli authorities responded by suspending habeas corpus, imprisoning the protest leaders and imposing curfews and other restrictions. On April 1, 1982, a 24-hour curfew was imposed and soldiers went from door to door confiscating the old ID cards and replacing them with cards signifying Israeli citizenship. This action caused an international outcry including two condemnatory UN resolutions.
Fiq, Khishneeiah, Alkersi, Ain Ziwan, Almansurah, and Khisfeen are among the demolished towns and villages in the captured part of the Golan Heights.
Source: Wikipedia > Golan Heights
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