Israel called on to abide by UN resolutions over the Golan

The UN General Assembly has called on Israel to abide by its resolutions concerning the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, especially UN Security Council resolution 497 of 1981.

The resolution considers Israel's decision to impose its jurisdiction on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights as null and void. The UN General Assembly also considered Israel's administrative and legislative measures to change the character of the Golan to be null and void and viewed them as a violation of international law and the Geneva Convention concerning protecting civilians at times of war.

The UN General Assembly called on Israel to stop imposing Israeli laws and Israeli identity cards on the Syrian citizens in the occupied Golan as well as carrying out suppressive measures against all citizens of the occupied Syrian Golan.

On Monday the UN General Assembly confirmed in a resolution it adopted that setting up Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab lands, including Jerusalem and the Golan, is illegal and constitutes an obstacle to Middle East peace, as well as to social and economic development.

The UN General Assembly called on Israel to completely stop all settlement building in the Golan and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Some 20,000 Syrians are living in the occupied Golan Heights in five towns: Majdal Shams, Baqata, Masaadah, al-Ghajar and Ein Qinyeh.

Following UN resolution no 497 of 1981 another resolution was released in February 1992 which considered the enforcement of Israeli laws on the Golan as an both aggressive act and a violation to the UN charter. But successive Israeli governments continued the annexation of the Golan and built in it some 40 settlements including 15,000 Israeli settlers.