The promised land of Golan was already occupied | Internationale

"We are Syrians, loyal to the Syrian Arab Republic and our President, Bashar al-Assad." Dressed in solemn black and wearing a white fez, the spiritual leader Jad al Karim Nbader is the epitome of the Druze people, the religious minority living in the Golan Heights since time immemorial. On the same border barrier of the plateau occupied by Israel since 1967 and only one kilometer from the point of view of the hill of cries – where the Druze of Syria formerly communicated with their relatives of Majdal Shams, the city situated further north of Golan, he defies the president of the United States with his mustache. "The decision to [Donald] Trump does not change the situation, "warns the religious leader and communal leader of the city of Buqata," on the contrary, it reinforces our will to defend this land. "

The gift of recognition of Israeli sovereignty received at the White House presupposes support for Benjamin Netanyahu's aspirations to achieve his fourth consecutive reelection in the legislative elections of 9 April. For the conservative prime minister, the new Golan promised land is one of the best electoral badets before voters, among whom the consensus on the Israeli character of the plateau is almost unanimous. Protected by Trump, he has not hesitated to cross the last frontiers of international law.

"There is a very important international principle: that starts an aggressive war and then loses territory, which does not come later to claim it," Netanyahu proclaimed Monday in Washington. "The Golan Heights belong to us, there we have historical roots, and once we have excavated a little, we discover remains of splendid synagogues," said the same Israeli leader who, in 1998, had negotiated with the Syrian government the return of the plateau in exchange for a peace treaty. "We have returned to the Golan by historical right and for reasons of self-defense," he added, "and President Trump now recognizes it."

Israel will not abandon the Syrian heights that dominate Upper Galilee and the Jordanian sources to deploy in its place such formidable enemies as the Al Quds Force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Expeditionary Corps and their militia badociates. . Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah, ally of the regime in the war of the neighboring Arab country. "The civil war has changed everything, and until 2010 we were ready to negotiate the reintegration of the territory into Syria, but it's something we can not afford now, just 60 kilometers from Damascus." Such is the reasoning of the Kobi Moron intelligence exoron, security expert at the IDC research center in Herzliya (north of Tel Aviv), while reminding Majdal Shams of the army base. Syria closest to the Golan under Israeli control. at the top of the hill screams.

Only one-tenth of the 23,000 Druze in the Golan Heights have acquired Israeli citizenship after more than half a century of occupation and 38 years after the Knesset (Parliament, Jerusalem) approved the Israeli nationality. annexation of Syrian territory. "Anyone who sits on Israel's side is outside our society," says Druz Sheikh Naser, who is condemned to ostracism: the worst condemnation of a community with deep identity roots.

Israel has barely repopulated the disputed plateau, where 22,000 settlers have settled since its arrest in Syria during the Six Day War. The Golan Heights is today the largest outdoor leisure theme park in the Jewish state, visited by hundreds of thousands of Israelis and a strategic observatory on the Syrian battlefield.

After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire during the Second World War, this fertile and water-rich land remained under French administration from 1923 to 1947, the year of Syria's independence. "We, the Israelis, have been here for much longer," said Dimitry Apartsev, mayor of Katsrin (south of the plateau), who emigrated from Lithuania (he was then annexed to the USSR) three decades ago . Katsrin (8,500 inhabitants) is the largest Jewish city in the Golan Heights, a territory where some thirty kibbutz and Israeli settlements have been built since 1967.

Recognition of a reality

"We did not come for a picnic on this land, Trump has now legitimized our sovereignty by recognizing a reality," the councilor concludes before taking an aerial photo of the municipality on which he indicates plans for expansion. bring the population to 40,000 people by 2030.

In his office in Majdal Shams, Druze lawyer Johary Kifah felt that shortly before, Trump's decision "will not change day-to-day life in the Golan Heights". "We will continue to be Syrian Druses under Israeli control, it is a fact, although the situation is no longer the same," he acknowledged pragmatically. "Only six months ago, on the other side of the fence, the Syrian rebels of Al Nusra were deployed. [filial de Al Qaeda]"He remembers", now they are patrolling the regime's troops and the Hezbollah militias. "

The vineyards planted by Jewish settlers on the slopes of Mount Hermon, which dominates the Golan, produce some of the best kosher wines (approved by the Rabbinate) exported from Israel. Despite Trump's kicking at the status quo in the Middle East, bottles destined for the European Union must continue to carry the label "wine produced in occupied territory".