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Israeli settlements were built in a number of places over destroyed Syrian villages and farms, which in turn meant that Israel had seized control of the land and resources. Each year Israeli authorities attract new settlers with the prospect of new jobs and encourage their arrival through socio-economic incentives.

In addition to appropriating Syrian land and illegally exploiting natural resources, the Israeli authorities misrepresent cultural and historic sites as part of Israel.

Families in the Occupied Syrian Golan peer through binoculars and talk on the phone to the relatives across the fortified ceasefire line who had been forcibly transferred or displaced to the rest of Syrian following the Israeli occupation.

A home demolished in Syrian village Majdal Shams by the Israeli authorities in September 2016. Meanwhile, the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements continues unchecked.

Multi storey buildings, as a result of discriminatory housing policies.

The church was damaged during the 1967 war and afterwards abandoned. Before the 1967 uprooting and expulsion of the local Syrian population, only 6% of the Golan population was Druze. Like Greater Syria, the Golan was somewhat ethnically and religiously diverse. The population comprised of Arabs, Circassians, Daghestanis, Chechens, Turkmen, Armenians and Kurds. Today approximately 25,000 Syrians remain in the Occupied Syrian Golan (mostly Druze with a Christian and Muslim minority).

Neve Ativ – often compared to a ‘Swiss Alpine village’ by travel companies – was built over the destroyed Syrian village of Jubatha el Zeit. Jubatha el Zeit was destroyed by the Israeli authorities to make way for a ski resort.

Ceasefire line and fortified fences by Majdal Shams

Israel succeeded in depopulating the Golan through a number of means, including its regime of Military Orders that were introduced to administer the newly occupied territory and declare certain areas closed military zones, thus preventing the inhabitants from returning even after the war.