The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has publicly denounced Israel’s now approved $11 million plan to double the living population in the annexed Golan Heights. Given the area’s strategic location on the southwestern border of Syria and the growing international concern over Israel’s presence in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime, Türkiye has called Israel’s plan an attempt to “expand its borders.”
Israel took over approximately two-thirds of the Syrian land during the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel declared in 1981 that it had officially annexed the territory where 31,000 Jewish settlers currently reside alongside approximately 24,000 Druze, a minority Arab esoteric religious group who adhere to the Druze faith. Last week, Israel broke its decades-long immobility in the region and moved troops and armor into what is supposedly a buffer zone -an area that physically separates two adversarial powers to maintain peace and stability- beyond the land it already subjugates.
Most countries consider Israel’s presence over the Golan Heights as an illegal occupation and do not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the land, though the Trump administration officially recognized the annexation in 2019.
Israel has previously stated that the new positioning taken in Syria was a “temporary measure,” but recent contradicting statements seem to have disproved that claim. Last week, Israeli officials confirmed that the troops would remain in their new positions in the Golan Heights through the winter. However, on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had officially approved the plan to double the Israeli population in the region.
During his statement on Sunday evening regarding the plan, Netanyahu conveyed that, “Strengthening the Golan Heights is strengthening the state of Israel, and it is especially important at this time. We will continue to hold on to it, make it flourish, and settle it.”
The Turkish Foreign Affairs Ministry responded to Netanyahu’s statement, condemning the plan, “This decision is a new stage in Israel’s goal of expanding its borders through occupation. This step by Israel is a source of grave concern, taken together with Israel’s entry into the area of separation, in violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement, its advance into adjacent areas, and airstrikes in Syria.” The ministry added in a summarizing note that the move would “seriously undermine” efforts to bring stability to Syria after Bashar al-Assad’s fall.
Netanyahu claims that with the fall of Assad, the agreement following the ceasefire in 1974 that ended the 1973 Yom Kippur War, establishing the UN-patrolled buffer zone between the two countries had collapsed- justifying their new positioning on the territory.
Nations besides Türkiye have also condemned Israel’s plans to double the population of the occupied land. One of their closest allies in Europe, Germany, has called on Israel to “abandon” the plan. Christian Wagner, a German Foreign Ministry spokesperson, expressed that it was “clear under international law that this area controlled by Israel belongs to Syria and that Israel is therefore an occupying power.” Wagner also added that Syria’s current instability and regime change should not be taken advantage of, saying it was “absolutely crucial now, in this phase of political upheaval in Syria, that all actors in the region take into account the territorial integrity of Syria and do not call it into question.”
However, at a press conference, he justified Netanyahu’s plans by adding that the situation was “complex” and that Israel had devised their actions to ensure that the Assad regime’s weapons did not fall into the wrong hands- a statement that drew international criticism. Wagner stressed that Germany was now “calling on all actors in the region to exercise restraint” and that war-ravaged “Syria has been a plaything of foreign powers for far too long.”
Following Islamist-led rebel forces' dethroning of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on December 8, Netanyahu not only ordered troops to seize the buffer zone but also launched hundreds of strikes on Syria targeting strategic military sites and weapons stockpiles, including at least 75 strikes on Syrian weapons depots and air defenses over the weekend.
Another country that has publicly rejected the Israeli government’s decision to expand its settlements was Egypt, considering the move as an apparent violation of the sovereignty and integrity of Syria’s territories.
The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs accusatory statement was publicized as Israel carried on pounding the former Assad regime’s military assets in Syria. Moreover, according to the UK-based SOHR (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights), Israel had hit numerous missile warehouses and other former Syrian army sites along Syria’s coast as part of the “most violent strikes in the Syrian coast region since the beginning of of the strikes in 2012.”
Syrian rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa (aka Mohammed al-Jolani) accused Israel on Saturday of using false pretexts to justify its attacks. He stated that Israeli forces pose “a threat of unwarranted escalation in the region” and that “Syria’s war-weary condition, after years of conflict and war, does not allow for new confrontations.” With his statement, Sharaa highlighted his priorities to maintain reconstruction and stability, not further conflict.
Israel’s actions underscore the government’s growing acrimony and violent tendencies towards foreign powers perceived as against its war efforts. Beginning on 7 October 2023, in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel- carried out in response to Israel’s continued occupation, blockade of Gaza, expansion of settlements, disregard for international law, as well as alleged threats to the religiously esteemed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the broader suffering of Palestinians- Israel initiated operations in Gaza. By 27 October, a full-scale invasion had been launched. The assault on the Gaza strip led to over 44 thousand Palestinians being killed and marked the start of a continuous pattern of aggression, one that soon extended to Lebanon and Iran as well.
Considering Israel’s history of violent confrontations, do the recent strikes and plans to double the Golan Heights’ population foretell a similar fate for Syria?
Edited by: Yağmur Ece Nisanoğlu, Ömer Gökce