Golan Heights

The armies of many civilizations have battled over the strategic peaks above the fertile Jordan Valley; the tradition of military conflict here dates back to the Roman siege of Gamla. In more recent times, Israel fought a successful uphill battle in the 1967 Six-Day War to capture the Golan from entrenched Syrian troops. Syria’s surprise attack in the 1973 Yom Kippur War pushed Israel back, but the IDF recovered and launched a successful counter-attack, capturing even more territory1.

As part of the 1974 disengagement accord, Israel returned both this newly conquered territory and part of the land captured in 1967. In 1981, the Menahem Begin’s government officially annexed the Heights, arousing international protest and considerably upsetting the Golan’s sizeable Druze population, who were now required to carry Israeli identification cards. Israeli settlements are now scattered amid ruins, rusting tanks, and remote Druze villages. All that remains of the Syrian presence are stone trenches with a commanding view of Israeli communities in the Galilee, and small plastic anti-personnel mines. The eucalyptus trees shading the trenches were planted at the suggestion of Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy in the Damascus government, who in 1967 told Israeli pilots to aim for the distinctive vegetation in the otherwise barren Heights.