Even before it annexed the Golan, Israel had legal title to thousands of dunams in the Golan and Syria, but it's a fact little known or even suppressed. I would not normally quote the writings of Barry Chamish, who is known for his wacko conspiracy theories and off-the-wall views. But Chamish's account of his meeting with a contact in the Jewish National Fund to discuss Jewish-owned holdings in the Golan Heights and Western Syria in the 1990s has a ring of truth about it.
In January 1996, the business magazine section of the Tel Aviv-based daily newspaper Globes published a four part series revealing a profoundly important fact that was unexplainably ignored: Israel has legal title over a large chunk of the Golan Heights and Western Syria.
In the 1890s, Baron Rothschild purchased 20,000 acres of Syrian land owned by the Ottoman empire. In 1942, the Syrian government illegally confiscated the land. The Baron transferred the deeds to the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in 1957. In 1992, the deeds were moved to the Prime Minister's Office where they are stored today.
After I read the series, I called a contact in the JNF, Bunny Alexandroni of the public relations department. She said she'd look into the matter and called me back. She informed me that she couldn't comment on the Globes series but asked me to meet her at her office. An appointment was made and she told me that her boss, the director of her department, would talk to me if I agreed not to publish his name. After so agreeing, I entered his office and he invited me to be seated.
He explained, "The Globes articles were essentially correct. They were a bit off on the location of the Rothschild land. Some of it is in the Golan but most is in the Horan, in Syria itself. I informed the government that the deeds are an excellent bargaining chip with the Syrians but the government refuses to play it. My hands are tied. I've been instructed not to pursue the matter." And that is the biggest secret of the Golan: the Israeli government is holding onto legal title to land in the Golan and beyond and is hiding the fact from the public.
Of course, the first question would be, why? What follows is a chronological explanation of how the current Israeli-Syrian "peace" talks came to be. For those who are unable to dramatically readjust their sense of reality, it is advised to simply stop reading and make do with the knowledge of the land titles. They are more than enough to assure that Israel remains atop the Golan Heights.
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The EU is legitimising mass dispossession
In the aftermath of WW1 the British offered the Zionist movement all the territory of the Golan up to Kuneitra, providing they would pay 5000 pounds for the road that would demarcate the border. The Jewish Agency did not come up with the money, and the boundary between Syria and Palestine was drawn to the South, on the Kinneret.
ReplyDeleteIt was a strategic blunder of the first magnitude, not the first and alas not the last.
That is fascinating. Do you have a source for that information, Ben?
ReplyDeleteI don't know anything about Ben's claim but I know that the Brit-French survey party sent out to demarcate the northern boundary of the Jewish National Home/"palestine" in December 1920 included part of the Golan Heights within "palestine." Recall that this was a Brit-French survey party meant to demarcate the border between French-held Syria and Lebanon and Brit-held "palestine."
ReplyDeleteThis boundary was later canceled and a new one drawn up which left all of the Golan Heights in the French mandate of Syria. Hence, Israel could claim the Golan on the grounds that all of it was originally assigned to the Jewish National Home. Moreover, the Golan Heights as well as the Bashan, Hawran and Trachon were parts of the Kingdom of Judea recognized by Rome [Herod's kingdom] and later of the Province of Judea.
I read this account several years ago. I'm afraid I don't remember exactly where, but it was most likely in one of the Israeli newspapers, perhaps Haaretz or Maariv.
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