{ "id": "IN11081", "type": "CRS Insight", "typeId": "INSIGHTS", "number": "IN11081", "active": false, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, CRSReports.Congress.gov", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 594926, "date": "2019-03-26", "retrieved": "2020-01-02T16:03:19.665519", "title": "Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights: U.S. Recognition of Israel\u2019s Sovereignty Claim", "summary": "On March 25, 2019, President Trump signed a proclamation stating that the United States recognizes the Golan Heights (hereinafter, the Golan) to be part of the State of Israel, based on the rationale that any future peace agreement should address threats Israel encounters from Syria\u2014including from Iran and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah. The President did not specify the territorial bounds of Israeli sovereignty that the United States recognizes in the Golan. Israel gained control of the Golan from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and effectively annexed it unilaterally by applying Israeli law to the region in 1981 (see Figure 1 and textbox below for a map, synopsis, and timeline). \nPresident Trump\u2019s proclamation changes long-standing U.S. policy on the Golan, and may have a number of effects (see \u201cOutlook\u201d below), including on Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy and the security picture in and around Syria. Since 1967, successive U.S. Administrations supported the general international stance that the Golan is Syrian territory occupied by Israel, with its final status subject to negotiation (see \u201cBackground on U.S. Policy and International Involvement\u201d below). In reaction to the proclamation and the President\u2019s earlier Twitter statement, others in the international community have insisted that the Golan\u2019s status has not changed. \nPresident Trump\u2019s action came during a closely contested Israeli campaign\u2014with elections scheduled for April 9\u2014while Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was visiting Washington, DC. During the campaign, Netanyahu has called on the international community to recognize Israeli sovereignty in the Golan, and his position is widely popular in Israel. In Congress, Senate and House bills introduced in February 2019 support Israeli sovereignty claims, and would treat the Golan as part of Israel in any existing or future law \u201crelating to appropriations or foreign commerce.\u201d\nFigure 1. Map of the Golan Heights\n/\nSource: CRS, based on data from ArcGIS, U.S. State Department, ESRI, and United Nations.\nNote: The DMZs could influence future border demarcation.\n Golan Heights: Brief Synopsis and Timeline of Key Events\nThe area under Israel\u2019s control known as the Golan Heights is actually the western two-thirds of the geological Golan Heights\u2014a plateau overlooking northern Israel. The eastern third remains under Syria\u2019s control, other than the zone monitored by the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). Israel\u2019s military has a strategically important presence in the Golan, and the area it controls is known for its water resources and agriculture, and is home to about 22,000 Israeli settlers and a similar number of Druze. Most of the Druze, who are concentrated in the northern part of the Golan, retain Syrian citizenship while having the option to apply for Israeli citizenship.\n\n1949-1967 Sporadic Israel-Syria conflict takes place over disputed demilitarized zones at the margins of the Golan following an armistice agreement after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war\n1967 Israel captures a portion of the geological Golan Heights during the June Arab-Israeli war; approximately 100,000 Syrians and 13,000 Palestinian refugees relocate to other areas of Syria; the U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 242\n1973 Israel ultimately retains its antebellum control of the Golan after an initial Syrian push during the Yom Kippur War\n1974 Israel-Syria disengagement agreement creates a demilitarized zone between areas of Israeli and Syrian control to be monitored by UNDOF\n1981 Israel effectively annexes the Golan unilaterally; the U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 497\n1991-2011 Various rounds of indirect Israel-Syria negotiation take place over the Golan\n2011-Present Syrian civil war\n\nBackground on U.S. Policy and International Involvement\nPrevious U.S. Administrations consistently supported Israel\u2019s security interests in the Golan while maintaining the position that final borders were subject to Israel-Syria negotiation. A key example was a 1975 letter from President Gerald Ford to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, which stated that the United States supported a peace agreement with Syria that would assure Israel\u2019s security from attack from the Golan, and would give weight to Israel\u2019s position that such assurances might be predicated on Israel remaining on the Golan. During the Reagan Administration, in December 1981 the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to adopt Resolution 497 in response to Israel\u2019s de facto annexation of the Golan. The resolution stated that the annexation was \u201cnull and void and without international legal effect\u201d and demanded that Israel rescind its action.\nSince 1974, the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) has patrolled an area of the Golan Heights between the regions controlled by Israel and Syria, with about 880 troops from five countries stationed there as of January 2019. During that time, Israel\u2019s forces in the Golan have not faced serious military resistance to their continued deployment, despite some security threats and diplomatic challenges. Periodic resolutions by the U.N. General Assembly (including the latest in November 2018, which the United States opposed) have criticized Israel\u2019s occupation as hindering regional peace and Israel\u2019s settlement and de facto annexation of the Golan as illegal. \nOutlook\nThe change in U.S. policy on the Golan Heights could have multiple effects. Some observers assert that, in response, Arab states may be less willing to encourage the Palestinians to consider future Trump Administration peace proposals. U.S. support for Israeli action against the \u201cland for peace\u201d principle set forth after the 1967 war in U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 would contradict Arab states\u2019 position\u2014articulated in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative\u2014that regional peace depends on the return of Arab lands previously captured by Israel\u2019s military. The Arab League and some of its member states explicitly condemned the U.S. policy change and insisted that it did not change the Golan\u2019s status. Some Palestinians reportedly fear that U.S. support for Israeli claims in the Golan could be a \u201cstepping stone\u201d to acquiescing to an Israeli annexation of the West Bank. \nFor decades after 1967, various Israeli leaders, reportedly including Prime Minister Netanyahu as late as 2011, had entered into indirect talks with Syria aimed at returning some portion of the Golan as part of a lasting peace agreement. A number of factors may have influenced Netanyahu to shift focus from negotiating with Syria on a \u201cland for peace\u201d basis to obtaining international support for Israel\u2019s claims of sovereignty. These could include Iran\u2019s increased presence in Syria, the effect Syria\u2019s civil war has had on its leadership and stability, and the Trump Administration\u2019s 2017 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital. In March 20 remarks justifying a permanent Israeli presence in the Golan, Netanyahu asserted that Israeli intelligence had uncovered efforts by Hezbollah to build a terror network in a nearby region of southern Syria. \nGiven the dramatic changes in Syria since its civil war began in 2011, the U.S. policy change also could affect regional security. Since 2018, Israel and Iran have engaged in periodic conflict in Syria, including some cases of Iranian missiles targeting Israeli positions in the Golan. The Syrian government has denounced the U.S. policy change as an illegal violation of Syrian sovereignty and territorial integrity, and insisted that Syria is more determined than ever to recover the Golan. Additionally, observers have argued that the policy change could unintentionally bolster Syrian President Bashar al Asad and Iran within Syria. \nNote: Christopher M. Blanchard, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs, and Carmelina Palmer, previously an intern at CRS, provided valuable background research and analysis for this product.", "type": "CRS Insight", "typeId": "INSIGHTS", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/IN11081", "sha1": "e6d3a83262b8b80e27a53ff0d8f8841ef403e6c6", "filename": "files/20190326_IN11081_e6d3a83262b8b80e27a53ff0d8f8841ef403e6c6.html", "images": { "/products/Getimages/?directory=IN/ASPX/IN11081_files&id=/0.png": "files/20190326_IN11081_images_275e4e889e6309fafd65b02ac700ea1b64add6c9.png" } }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/IN11081", "sha1": "fb2bb86eabf21c5da6bbb8af0dc87dcf7af1c402", "filename": "files/20190326_IN11081_fb2bb86eabf21c5da6bbb8af0dc87dcf7af1c402.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [] }, { "source_dir": "crsreports.congress.gov", "title": "Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights: U.S. Recognition of Israel\u2019s Sovereignty Claim", "retrieved": "2020-09-05T09:21:05.039366", "id": "IN11081_1_2019-03-22", "formats": [ { "filename": "files/2019-03-22_IN11081_a9f42725c5ab238ac743a20431fda89cb56043a0.pdf", "format": "PDF", "url": "https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11081/1", "sha1": "a9f42725c5ab238ac743a20431fda89cb56043a0" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/2019-03-22_IN11081_a9f42725c5ab238ac743a20431fda89cb56043a0.html" } ], "date": "2019-03-22", "summary": null, "source": "CRSReports.Congress.gov", "typeId": "IN", "active": false, "sourceLink": "https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/details?prodcode=IN11081", "type": "CRS Insight" } ], "topics": [ "Appropriations", "CRS Insights", "Middle Eastern Affairs" ] }