Housing and planning
Last update: 24/02/2022
During the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Israel militarily occupied over two-thirds (1260 square kilometers) of the Syrian Golan. Following the Israeli occupation, approximately 138,000 native Syrian inhabitants were forcibly transferred or displaced from their homes and forbidden from returning (only five percent of the original population was able to remain). Subsequently, the Israeli military began a widespread campaign to demolish their homes, destroying one city and 340 villages. Today, the remaining Syrian population is approximately 28,000 who live in five villages located in the extreme north of the Occupied Syrian Golan, and who control just 4% of the land. These villages are severely overcrowded and cannot cope with a growing population.
Discriminatory land and housing policies have meant that expansion on surrounding land is rarely permitted. As a result of severe restrictions imposed by Israeli planning committees, it is close to impossible for the Syrian population to obtain building permits. Therefore, the Syrian population is forced to build homes without building permits, as this is the only way to meet their housing needs. Building without permits risks large fines – USD55 to USD85 per square meter (potentially doubling the cost of construction) – and the full or partial demolition of the building. Indeed, in September 2016, a home in Majdal- Shams was illegally demolished by the Israeli authorities.
This was the first time that the Israeli authorities have demolished a home in the Occupied Syrian Golan for over thirty years. Demolition orders were issued for hundreds of homes that were built without building permits, in addition to imposing heavy fines. There is always a great concern among the Syrian population that the occupation authority resorts to adopting a systematic policy of house demolitions in light of the continuing discriminatory policies of housing and planning when it comes to Arabs. This exacerbates the housing crisis in Syrian villages and prevents the development of roads and sanitation systems and building institutions. educational, health, and cultural, and the establishment of infrastructure for industrial zones.
What exacerbates the housing problem in the five Syrian villages, in particular, is the continuation of the Israeli authorities' policy of appropriating land by classifying them as "nature reserves", "areas for military needs", or "public interest". Since 1948, these policies have been used systematically, as they clearly target the Arab population inside Israel and the occupied territories. The aim is to prevent the expansion of Arab residential communities, in addition to using the confiscated lands to build settlements and establish projects that primarily serve the Jewish presence.
According to Israeli data, the residents of the four Syrian villages (Majdal-Shams, Buqaatha, Masaada, and Ein Qinya) owned approximately 96,000 dunams, of which about 27,000 dunams of agricultural lands and the rest (69,000) dunams were grazing lands. The same Israeli sources indicated in another document that 74,000 dunums of grazing lands belonged to the four villages before the occupation in June 1967, where these lands decreased in 1969 to 38,000 dunams, as a result of confiscation. Based on these data, it can be said that the four villages owned, before the occupation, more than 100,000 dunums of agricultural land and pastures. As for the village of Ghajar, before the occupation, it owned about 5,000 dunams, and today it owns about 2,000 dunums, as most of its lands were confiscated for the benefit of the “Snir” illegal settlement located inside the occupied Golan.
Today, the total area of these five villages is approximately 58 thousand dunums, but in practice, it is only 47 thousand dunums, as approximately 11 thousand dunums were deducted in favor of the nature reserves surrounding these villages. This means that, since the occupation, the Israeli authorities have appropriated approximately 56% of the lands of the Syrian population, for the benefit of the army, settlements, and nature reserves.
For more Information see in the Website the reports:
- Right of Housing in the Golan.
- Nature Reserves in The Occupied Golan -The environment in the service of land control policy.
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