Druze residents on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights wave Syrian and Druze flags as they protest against US President Donald Trump's pledge to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the strategic plateau on March 23, 2019 (AFP Photo/Jalaa MAREY)
CAIRO – 24 March 2019: Dozens of Druze Arabs, some carrying Syrian flags and pictures of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, gathered on the Golan Heights on Saturday to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s support for Israeli sovereignty over the territory.
Trump declared US recognition of Israel's sovereignty over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, and later annexed.
Golan, a region in the Levant, spanning about 1,800 square kilometers, was under Ottoman ruling and part of the Vilayet of Damascus until it was transferred to French control in 1918. When the mandate terminated in 1946, it became part of the newly independent Syrian Republic.
The mountainous plateau was part of Syria until Israel captured it in the 1967 Middle East war, annexing it in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally.
Israel regards the Golan as a strategic asset because its peaks overlook northern Israeli towns and southwest Syria, where battles from an eight-year civil war have raged in view, according to Reuters.
Some 22,000 Druze live in the Israeli-occupied Golan, and many still have relatives on the Syrian side of the fortified boundary.
"This land has sovereignty and its sovereignty is the Syrian Arab Republic," said local resident Rafiq Ibrahim, dressed in traditional Druze black garb, in the town of Majdal Shams.
Syria pledged to take back the territory and there was widespread international criticism of the U.S. move.
Comments
Leave a Comment