Why is Israel taking an increasingly hard line on the Golan Heights?

During the UN General Assembly last week, the issue of the Golan Heights, Syrian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, returned to the forefront of the political arena.

In a speech at the UNGA last Tuesday, Sharaa said that the Golan would remain Syrian land and that Israel’s 1981 annexation was null and void.

He also reiterated Damascus’s commitment to the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel and called on Israel to withdraw from territory it seized beyond the Golan Heights after the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who addressed the UN on Thursday despite being  wanted by the ICC for war crimes, replied with a claim that “Jews have been present in the Golan Heights since the time of Moses” while telling Sharaa to read the Bible.

Israeli officials have adopted an increasingly hard line regarding both the Golan and the areas of southern Syria it occupied since 2024.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened on Wednesday to seize and permanently retain more Syrian territory.

"If our forces or the territory of the State of Israel is attacked from Syria, we will have no choice but to act and respond. Any area we seize this time will remain ours forever, in accordance with the laws of war," Katz said.

Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon, likewise wrote in a post on X following al-Sharaa’s speech, that the Golan Heights “will always remain part of Israel.”

Struggle over legitimacy

In his address to the UN General Assembly, President Al-Sharaa said that Israel had carried out around 500 air and artillery strikes and more than 1,200 incursions in Syria since late 2024. He also mentioned the detention of around 300 Syrians.

He called for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-2024 lines and affirmed Syria’s commitment to the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.

On his trip to the US, the Syrian president also jokingly suggested that US President Donald Trump give New Jersey to Israel instead of the Golan Heights. Trump recognised Israeli “sovereignty” over the occupied territory during his first term as US president in 2019.

Khaled Khalil, a Syrian expert on Syrian-Israeli relations told The New Arab that Sharaa’s insistence that the Golan is Syrian land and his criticism of Israeli strikes in Syria had prompted Israel to treat the issue as part of a broader struggle over legitimacy and the political narrative.

Khalil linked this to the international pressure and criticism facing Israel, including from some of its allies.

Another Syrian political analyst, Ghazi Dahman, told The New Arab that Israel’s domestic politics and upcoming elections on October 27 were behind the bellicose Israeli statements.

He said that political one-upmanship regarding security usually precedes Israeli elections, but also suggested that Israeli statements might be an attempt to head off American pressure aimed at resuming Syrian-Israeli negotiations over new security arrangements.

The real history

Netanyahu brought ancient history into the Golan issue when he claimed in his UN speech that Jews had been present in the Golan for thousands of years, referring to the Bible.

However, the history of the Golan is more complex than presence of a single group. Different civilizations and peoples successively inhabited the plateau, including the Arameans, Assyrians, Nabataeans, and Ghassanids, among others.

Settlement in the Golan dates back to very ancient times. The region was home to multiple languages and cultures, including Canaanite, Aramaic and Arabic.

As for the account concerning the Prophet Moses, different religious texts, including the Torah, indicate that Moses did not ultimately enter Palestine. He died in the Sinai Desert during the years of wandering, while the Israelites entered Palestine later under the leadership of Joshua, by crossing the Jordan River.

Consequently, using the story of Moses to establish Jewish presence in the Golan appears to be simply a political maneuvre on Netanyahu’s part.

In 1967, the Golan Heights contained around 150,000 Syrian residents. The vast majority – around 130,000 – were displaced after the war.

Some Syrian residents still remain in several predominantly Druze villages, notably Majdal Shams, Mas’ade, Buq’ata, and Ghajar.

With the exception of the United States and recently Colombia, no country recognises Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, with the UN considering it occupied Syrian territory.