Exercising Israel's Territorial Sovereignty

"The city of Gamala on the Golan derived its name from gamal (Hebrew for camel), since it was situated on a hill shaped like a camels rump. The Hasmonean ruler Alexander Yannaeus founded the city in the first century BCE and it continued to be inhabited by Jews, as attested to by Josephus Flavius (Antiquities of the Jews 13:394). Josephus, a Jew, was Commander of Galilee during the Jewish Revolt against Rome and in 66 CE fortified Gamala as his main stronghold on the Golan. He gives a very detailed topographical description of the city and describes the Roman siege under the command of Vespasian which led to its conquest in 67 CE. The Romans attempted to take the city by means of a siege ramp, but were turned back by the defenders; only on the second attempt did they succeed in penetrating the fortifications and conquering the city. Thousands of inhabitants were slaughtered, while others chose to jump to their deaths from the top of the cliff (Josephus, The Jewish War IV, 1-83). Gamala has not been rebuilt since."

Archaeological Sites in Israel-Gamala- Jewish City on the Golan, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs

"[Control over the Golan remains of] real importance to Israel's security."

"Legal questions are something else and over time, if the situation were to change in Syria, that's something we look at, but we are nowhere near that."

U.S.Secretary of State Antony Blinken 

"It goes without saying that the Golan Heights are Israeli."

"The fact that the Trump administration recognized that and the fact that the Biden administration made clear there is no change in that policy is also important."

Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967   Getty Images

Western colonial powers, France and Britain, when they occupied the Middle East between them, decided on arbitrary borders for nascent states and for states that they would usher into being, such as Jordan, given to the Hashemites as solace for the Saudis given Arabia which the Hashemites had earmarked as their territory. The Golan which from antiquity, was part of Jewish heritage, was apportioned to Syria.

 

But when nations declare war on other nations with the intention of demolishing their presence and taking their territory, it is the nation that wins the conflict that customarily throughout history, claims the geographical territorial spoils as their own. Which, in 1967, led to Israel re-claiming the Golan Heights from Syria and finally in 1981, annexing the territory to gather it into greater Israel. Every time hostile Arab nations surrounding Israel marched to destroy it, Israel successfully defended itself.

The Golan Heights is a strategic gain for Israel. Formerly, Syria used it to rain down artillery shells into Israel. Astride the heights now on the territory belonging to Syria, its military and Shiite militias under Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps occasionally lob missiles into Jewish border towns and farming communities. While Syria demands the return of the Golan to its possession, and the international community continues its non-recognition of Israel's rights to the Golan, for Israel to relinquish it would be suicidal.

 

While still under Syrian control, the Golan Heights were used to bombard Israeli territory below  Getty Images

 

Recently the Israeli government announced its intention to increase the Israeli population level on the Golan, with stated plans of building thousands of new homes and to establish new towns for people to populate in what will increasingly become a fertile agricultural area of wide dimensions, increasing its current agricultural activity and output on the 1,200-square-kilometre territory.

Israel has given itself a goal of five years to establish a doubling of the current population numbers in the Golan. That tacit recognition was given Israel's right to maintain sovereignty over the Golan Heights by former President Trump's administration, continued for the present by his successor administration  under Joe Biden, lends support to Israel's ownership of the territory on the international stage.

"The aim of the decision is to double the number of (Israeli) residents in the Golan in the coming years, meaning an addition of 23,000 people in the area", read a statement issued by Prime Minister Bennett's office. In addition to Israeli Jews populating the Golan there is a 20,000 Druze population living there, which continues to identify itself as governed by Syria.

Every country in the world is free to administer its territory as it sees fit. Israel alone has been singled out for condemnation for exerting its national right to enact policies and to practise the right of administration on land intrinsic to its heritage and to its current re-establishment as a state among states of the world body of states. Much of the world throws its support toward Arabs who call themselves Palestinians who had migrated to a part of the Middle East where being Palestinian always referred to its Jewish inhabitants.

These latter-day 'Palestinians' claiming to have predated even Biblical Judea, claiming Jesus and Moses as 'Palestinian' Arabs, contest Israel for its heritage sites of East Jerusalem and the sacred sites of historical Israel, from the Second Temple to the memorial sites of the Biblical-era prophets of Israel. Claims so absurd they make a mockery of history and human intelligence.