Rights and Accountability 20 December 2024
In his first term as president, Donald Trump presented Miriam Adelson with the Medal of Freedom.
PolarisIsrael is establishing a “buffer zone” (Jabal al-Sheikh, also known as Mount Hermon) on a “buffer zone” (the Golan Heights) after already expelling some 800,000 Palestinians with the establishment of the expansionist country in 1948.
Israeli leaders claim this “buffer zone” – more accurately termed occupation – will be “temporary.”
Experience with “temporary” occupation in the West Bank makes clear that may well not be the case. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem highlighted Israel’s misuse of the term “temporary” 10 years ago in a position paper documenting “a 47-year-long temporary occupation.”
Today, it’s a 57-year-long “temporary” occupation, a point largely reiterated this summer in an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice.
B’Tselem stated at the time about the West Bank occupation: “Since international law prohibits the annexation of a territory by force, according to this law, the occupying state does not gain sovereignty over the occupied territory and its control there is meant to be temporary, pending a diplomatic agreement that determines the status of the territory. However, Israel’s actions on the ground indicate that it does not see the occupation as temporary.”
The same international law applies to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, yet Israel unilaterally annexed that territory in 1981. President Donald Trump, who is still maneuvering to clear his US domestic record of 34 felony convictions, recognized Israeli claims of sovereignty over the Golan Heights in 2019.
President Joe Biden did not reverse course during a term in office that may yet be most remembered for his abetting the horrors of the Gaza genocide.
Excuses, excuses at Foggy Bottom
State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told journalists on 9 December that “the Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area around the negotiated Israeli-Syrian buffer zone, which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations that would threaten the state of Israel and would threaten civilians inside Israel.”
The “negotiated Israeli-Syrian buffer zone” is, in fact, no such thing. It’s all Syrian territory.
The State Department and Biden administration are taking Israel’s side in a way that makes a mockery of international law, particularly with Israel’s history of permanent “temporary” occupation.
As he has noted repeatedly on Israel’s behalf over the last 14 months, Miller claimed, “Every country has the right to take action against terrorist organizations, and every country, I think, would be worried about a possible vacuum that could be filled by terrorist organizations on its border, especially in volatile times, as we obviously are in right now in Syria.”
Miller’s words ignore how time and again Israel has abused the language of defensive action (including in 1967, a war initiated by Israel) to seize Arab land, repeatedly turning previous residents into refugees. Such rhetoric emphasizes an Israeli right to self-defense, but no similar right is extended to Palestinians and other regional countries.
Miller also stressed that Israel’s actions in Syria will be temporary. The words are no more reassuring than Biden’s claim earlier this year that Rafah is a red line in terms of the ongoing destruction of Gaza.
According to Miller: “Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions. And so ultimately, what we want to see is lasting stability between Israel and security – sorry, Israel and Syria, and that means we support all sides upholding the 1974 disengagement agreement.”
He is nothing if not consistent, once again misstating the border situation. The reality is that Miller is discussing Syrian territory occupied in 1967 – and more Syrian territory occupied in 2024.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on 12 December also raised the 1974 disengagement agreement when he noted that it “remains in force” and that it must be sustained, “including by ending all unauthorized presence in the area of separation and refraining from any action that would undermine the ceasefire and stability in Golan.”
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, maintained on the same day: “The collapse of the Syrian regime created a vacuum on Israel’s border and in the buffer zone established by the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement. Israel will not permit jihadi groups to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities on the Golan Heights with October 7th style attacks.”
The statement added: “That is why Israeli forces entered the buffer zone and took control of strategic sites near Israel’s border. This deployment is temporary until a force that is committed to the 1974 agreement can be established and security on our border can be guaranteed.”
On 17 December, Netanyahu ascended to the summit of Jabal al-Sheikh/Mount Hermon. This time he did not employ the word “temporary” as he had five days earlier, referring instead to making an “assessment in order to decide on the deployment of the IDF [Israel’s military] in this important place until another arrangement is found that ensures Israel’s security.”
A quick departure can only be seen as highly unlikely, particularly with the Biden administration not pressing the matter and the incoming Trump administration already having backed annexation of Golan territory seized in 1967.The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) issued a press statement on 13 December regarding “a significant increase” in Israeli military movements “along the ceasefire line.”
The statement further noted that “UNDOF has informed its Israeli counterparts that these actions constitute a violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement. UNDOF urges all parties to respect their obligations under the agreement, cease all military activities in the area of separation, and uphold the terms of the 1974 agreement to preserve stability in the Golan.”
UNDOF concluded by noting this “follows an incident on 7 December when armed individuals looted weapons and ammunition at United Nations position 10A near Hadar and UNDOF personnel engaged with leaders of the local community and recovered a number of the looted items, including most of the weapons and ammunition that had been taken earlier in the day.”
Israel is clearly looking for any pretext it can find to expand its footprint in Syria.
Democrats openly collaborate with colonization
On 10 December, Miller made sure to emphasize that the US under the Biden administration accepted – as it had in July – the earlier lawbreaking of Israel and the Trump administration in the Golan Heights.
“I would just say with respect to the Golan Heights, of course, the United States recognized several years ago control over the Golan Heights. That’s just as a factual matter.”
Miller added: “Now, when it comes to other disputed areas, we have long made clear that we want to see a two-state solution. When you talk to areas that have been under Israeli control since 1967, we want to see the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. And you have seen us take a number of steps to try to advance that possibility, and we’ll continue to do that.”
Right-wing Israeli leaders presumably see such craven statements and think that all they have to do is get Trump on board with annexation of all or part of the West Bank and a Democratic president will later also fall in line. It happened with the Golan Heights courtesy of the Trump and Biden administrations and Israeli leaders will surely think it’s a possibility with the West Bank, in part or whole, for 2025 or soon after.
In fact, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also effectively the governor of the occupied West Bank, quickly ordered preparations for annexation of the West Bank after Trump’s November victory.
Whether even more clear-cut Israeli apartheid with Trump’s support would move the Democrats, Arab states, the European Union and the United Nations to action remains very much in doubt. More likely, they would stand aside or issue ineffectual statements as they have for decades.Trump is already on record as saying of Republican donors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson that he “gave them the Golan Heights.” Despite a denial by Adelson spokesperson Andy Abboud, speculation is widespread that Miriam Adelson wants Trump’s backing of Israeli annexation of the West Bank as a quid pro quo for her $100 million in financial support of his 2024 presidential campaign.
Certainly, many Israeli citizens are excited about the prospect of taking more land for Israel, whether in the West Bank or the Golan Heights.Nataly Dadon, an Israeli influencer and model, posted to Instagram that “If you’re looking for me, I’m on the Israeli Hermon (not Syrian, it’s all ours, accept it!).”
Israeli defense minister Israel Katz tweeted on 8 December that “We instructed the IDF, the prime minister and I, with the approval of the cabinet, to seize the buffer zone and control points to ensure the protection of all Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights – Jews and Druze – so that they would not be exposed to threats from the other side.” Israel’s military has also struck hundreds of Syrian military targets since the collapse of the government of Bashar al-Assad.
Additionally, Netanyahu recently announced a plan to double the number of Israeli settlers in the part of the Golan Heights occupied by Israel since 1967. All settlements are illegal under international law.The prime minister’s plans are not likely to be temporary. He is making a mockery of the so-called rules-based order and showing that the West doesn’t care when it’s an ally breaking those rules.
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