On the Israeli decision to annex the Golan Heights
On December 14, 1981, the Israeli Knesset adopted a decision annexing the occupied Syrian Golan Heights to Israel. On the occasion of the 17th anniversary of this Israeli decision, which violates all international norms and charters especially the Geneva agreements for 1947, ArabicNews.com has compiled the following report.
By the end of winter 1981, two groups at the Israeli Knesset had proposed two draft projects calling for imposing Israeli laws on the occupied Golan. The first group was composed of 18 members from the Likud bloc and the second from two representatives of the Hatahia party which was led by Genula Cohen. Another 70 Israeli parliament members signed a petition submitted to the Israeli government calling upon it to adopt the annexation decision.
On December 14, 1981 the Israeli Knesset adopted its decision to impose Israeli rule on the Golan so as to materialize the Zionist claim in the proclaimed Torah rights in the Arab territories. Since its very beginning the Zionist movement has been calling for annexing the Golan and the anti-Lebanese mounts (Jabal al-Sheikh) to what it calls national border of the "Jewish national homeland."
A message sent by chairman of the World Jewish Conference, Haim Weismann, to British Prime Minister Lloyd George on December 29, 1919 said, "The Zionists would not accept under any condition the Sykis -Picot agreement because it deprives the claimed national Jewish homeland from its best settlements in the Golan, Hauran and prohibits Palestine from its historical rights to the water springs of the Jordan and Litani rivers."
This very dream to control and colonize the Golan, which had been perpetuated since the beginnings of the Zionist movement, was not politically a newly born decision of the Israeli Knesset on December 14, 1981. Several earlier projects and proposals preceded in this regard.
Among these projects was the Egal Alloun project in 1976 when he was Israel's foreign minister. He proposed that Israel had to seize a strategic point in the Golan to be able to monitor its water sources and prevent a possible urgent Syrian attack against the Galilee region.
Another project was submitted by al-Mabam party in 1976 during its general conference. The party proposed including the Golan within Israeli borders in a way to ensure security for the Galilee settlements and the Jordan Valley
An intensive media campaign was carried out by the Golan settlements committee during 1979 to pressure the Israeli government in order to promptly adopt the annexation decision and to expand settlements in the Golan. The campaign started by signing a memorandum under the title "The Golan is an integrated part of the state of Israel and sovereignty over the Golan is a guarantee for peace and security."
The number of Israelis among the signatories of the memorandum was 74,500 including 70 Knesset members. Among these Knesset members were Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Ariel Sharon, Shloumo Halil and Egal Alloun.
The annexation decision which was voted by the Knesset on December 14,1981 won the consent of 62 votes of the Likud, Mefdal and Labor parties against 21 votes cast by the Communist party and two other leftist movements.
During interventions to decide on the annexation decision, the Israeli prime minister at that time, Menahem Begin said: "Historically speaking the Golan heights was and is still part of the Israeli lands. There is no person in our country or outside it who thinks that the Golan is not an integral part of our territories."