Saturday, March 23, 2019

Never Forget the Occupied Syrian Golan Heights

Now this:

"Syria has vowed to retake the Golan Heights as Donald Trump's call for the US to recognise the occupied territory as part of Israel elicited strong responses from Russia, Turkey and Iran. The president ended half a century of US foreign policy and broke from post-second world war international consensus that forbids territorial conquest during war with a tweet on Thursday that said it was time 'to fully recognise Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights'. Trump said the territory was 'of critical strategic and security importance to the state of Israel and regional stability'. Israeli troops took the volcanic plateau from Syria in the six-day war in 1967 and later annexed it, moves that were condemned by the UN security council and never internationally recognised." (Trump provokes global anger by recognising Israel's claim to Golan Heights, Oliver Holmes, theguardian.com, 23/3/19)

"Following the Israeli occupation of the #Syrian #Golan in 1967, approx. 95% of the population was forcibly transferred or displaced. The Israeli army then demolished their homes, destroying one city & 340 villages and farms. These were replaced by Israeli agricultural settlements." (Tweet @GolanMarsad, 22//3/19)

(Al-Marsad "monitors and documents violations of international humanitarian rights law and humanitarian law in the Occupied Syrian Golan.")

IOW, the Israelis did to the Syrian population of the Golan in 1967 what they'd already done to the Palestinians in 1948 and 1967 (West Bank). Serial ethnic cleansing.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This was discussed some time ago here MERC, and I believe Grappler suggested that the discovery of vast oil and gas reserves may be the reason for Israel's determination to hang on to the Golan. On Mondoweiss, one of the commenters, J Walters, posted a video of an investigation by Blackstone (sounded doubtful) into Trump's alliance with 'Genie Oil & Gas'. (Genie were granted exploration rights to the Golan Heights by Israel). It looked highly suspect.....I watched anyway. If the veracity of Blackstone's research is established, it is damning for Trump and will lead to war. But on the heels of Mullers final report - after a gruelling three year long investigation - why have Blackstone's easy to find documents not been uncovered by Muller? With all the incessant assertions of Muller's exceptional credentials and integrity by all and sundry - I smell a rat! Or is it just that entire US Government, the Media and the Judiciary are too afraid to confront the elephant in the room? https://mondoweiss.net/2019/03/benjamin-netanyahu-endorsement/

MERC said...

A, you may be right, but the problem with Israel - one of them anyway - is that it needs no excuse whatever to grab Arab land.

Grappler said...

Re Anonymous: I am less convinced than I might once have been by the Genie issue. Yes, there may be people - like Cheney and Murdoch - who would like to steal the resources of the Golan from Syria, but they will need investment to do that and I doubt if there will be many takers given that, at any time, Hizbollah and Syria could mount an attack that would destroy their infrastructure, Iron Dome notwithstanding. And what insurance company would back them? Legitimacy is yet a further concern for investors.

The issue of water seems to me to be more pressing.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/thirsty-sea-of-galilee-sinking-toward-lowest-level-ever-recorded/


https://original.antiwar.com/Reza_Behnam/2018/04/30/the-politics-of-water-and-peace-in-the-middle-east/


I never believed the "Russia collusion" story unlike many of my friends (I am biting my tongue! ;)) On the other hand, Israeli collusion is very real and clearly demonstrable, given the massive financial support for both major parties in the US by people (Adelson and Saban spring to mind) for whom Israel is the only item on the agenda. But Mueller was never going to look at that.