The Israeli Occupation Forces took advantage of and exploited the reality that they have controlled the Golan Heights since 1967, some 56 years ago, in order to seize as much land as possible.
Forty years have passed since the Israeli government's decision to annex the occupied Syrian Golan (hereinafter, the Golan) on 14 December 1981, and to impose the laws of the occupier after 14 years of the Golan being subjected to military rule since its occupation in 1967.
Earlier this year, the Israeli authorities announced the decision to hold local elections on 3 October 2018 in the Syrian villages in the occupied Golan. These elections would be the first of their kind since the occupation just over fifty years ago.
Following the Israeli occupation in 1967, over 130,000 native Syrian inhabitants – approximately 95% of the population – were forcibly transferred or displaced from their homes.
Al-Marsad condemns plans by the Israeli government to build 1600 homes in the illegal Israeli settlement of Katzrin in the Occupied Syrian Golan.