Netanyahu vows Golan will ‘forever’ remain Israel’s at 1st ever cabinet meeting in occupied land

Netanyahu urges Obama to ‘think different’ on Golan Heights annexation https://t.co/c9bZb7gqMm pic.twitter.com/rdiM0XuJLe

— RT (@RT_com) November 11, 2015

The strategically important Golan Heights stretch f-rom the Syrian border to that of Israel, with the two-thirds of the area being under Israeli occupation following the 1967 Six Day War. In 1981, Israel annexed the Golan, extended its jurisdiction throughout the territory and began massive construction of Jewish settlements.

Speaking in the settlement of Maale Gamla in the occupied Golan Heights, next to an archaeological excavation site whe-re the Jews fought against Roman Empire nearly 2,000 years ago, Netanyahu used historic legacy of the area as a rebuttal to his claims.

“I convened this celebratory meeting in the Golan Heights to send a clear message: The Golan will always remain in Israel’s hands. Israel will never withdraw f-rom the Golan Heights.

Read more

Huge oil discovery in Golan Heights - Israeli media

“The Golan was an integral part of the Land of Israel in ancient times. That is documented by dozens of ancient synagogues around us. And the Golan is an integral part of the State of Israel in the present time.”

Besides the claimed ancient legacy, the Golan Heights have an enormous economic importance for Israel. Last October, an Israeli business website Globes suggested that the oil deposits on the Golan would make the tiny country self-sufficient for many years to come.

Potential production could reach billions of barrels. Israel consumes 270,000 barrels per day. It also currently imports up to three quarters of its oil f-rom the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq, the Financial Times reported in August last year.

The annexation of the Golan has never been accepted by the international community, and the Israeli leadership sees the war in neighboring Syria as a chance to cement the status quo in the area. Last November, The Economist reported that an influential lobbying group has been urging the Israeli government to demand international recognition of its control over the Golan for “having to tolerate” the Iran nuclear deal.

The lobbyists’ advisory board pushing for extensive oil production at the Golan included former US vice-president Dick Cheney and the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, according to The Economist.

On the Arabs’ side, the 1967 occupation of the Golan led to a large-scale humanitarian disaster. Many Syrian cities and villages have been effectively depopulated, with up to 130,000 forced to flee f-rom their homes. In 2010, almost forty years into the occupation, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that many Syrian towns, farms and villages – flourishing before the 1967 war – became deserted, crumbled over the years or devastated by the IDF during live-fire exercises.