Majority of Syrians continue to refuse Israeli citizenship
Recently obtained data shows that only 6.5% of the Syrian population in the Golan has applied for Israeli citizenship since the start of the occupation in 1967. According to data obtained by Al-Marsad from the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority, overall, only 12% of the Syrian population (excluding Ghajar – see below) currently holds Israeli citizenship.
These revelations are timely given the local council elections which are planned in the Syrian villages for October this year. Only those with Israeli citizenship are allowed to stand as candidates, therefore excluding the vast majority of the population. The elections would be the first of their kind during the Israeli occupation of the Golan and are hotly debated by the Syrian population: a major concern being they are inherently undemocratic.
The data also counters claims that there is high demand for Israeli citizenship among Syrians in the Golan. In fact, the vast majority of the population continue to refuse it.
The data also shows the following:
- The percentage of people who hold Israeli citizenship in each of the remaining Syrian villages is as follows: Buqata 12.6%; Majdal Shams 11.6%; Masada 13.1%; Ein Qynia 10.2%; Ghajar 99.6%.
- Ghajar alone represents 47% of the overall number of Syrians who hold Israeli citizenship in the Golan. In 1981, its population was effectively forced to undergo mass naturalisation.[i] Consequently, almost all Ghajar residents hold Israeli citizenship and new-born children receive it automatically. Including Ghajar, the total number of Syrians holding Israeli citizenship in the Golan is 20%.
- 69% of the overall number of people who hold Israeli citizenship in the Golan do so as a result of birth, marriage or due to a change of residence. Any child born in the Golan to a parent with Israeli citizenship will automatically receive it. Further, given the large Druze population in the Golan, many Arab citizens of Israel from the Galilee who are Druze come to the Golan for marriage or to move home.
- The highest number of applications for Israeli citizenship occurred in 1981, reaching 365 applications, including 232 cases in Ghajar. Over a 32 year period, between 1982 and 2014, 915 people applied for Israeli citizenship, with an average of 27 applications per year. In 2015, the number of applicants for Israeli citizenship rose to 105. This increased to 181 applications in 2016, before decreasing to 106 in 2017. This number did not exceed 24 in the first quarter of this year.[ii]
The full data from the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority can be found below and by clicking here (in Hebrew).
Table 1 – Population of residents (holders of permanent or temporary residency status) and citizens (holders of Israeli citizenship) per village (as of 12 March 2018)
| Village | Citizens | Permanent / temporary residents | Total |
| Buqata | 829 | 5748 | 6577 |
| Majdal Shams | 1312 | 9938 | 11250 |
| Masada | 528 | 3487 | 4015 |
| Ghajar | 2610 | 9 | 2619 |
| Ein Qynia | 239 | 2094 | 2333 |
| Total | 5518 | 21276 | 26794 |
Table 2 – Residents who obtained Israeli citizenship according to village and year (as of 12 March 2018)
| Year citizenship was granted | Buqata | Majdal Shams | Masada | Ghajar | Ein Qynia | Total |
| 1951 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 1963 | 3 | 3 | ||||
| 1964 | 4 | 1 | 5 | |||
| 1967 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 1969 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 1976 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 1977 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 1978 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 1979 | 3 | 1 | 4 | |||
| 1980 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 40 | 52 | |
| 1981 | 66 | 41 | 19 | 232 | 7 | 365 |
| 1982 | 16 | 16 | 3 | 1 | 36 | |
| 1983 | 11 | 15 | 14 | 1 | 41 | |
| 1984 | 5 | 17 | 1 | 23 | ||
| 1985 | 4 | 10 | 2 | 22 | 4 | 42 |
| 1986 | 14 | 11 | 6 | 52 | 1 | 84 |
| 1987 | 6 | 14 | 9 | 45 | 5 | 79 |
| 1988 | 18 | 12 | 7 | 43 | 2 | 82 |
| 1989 | 17 | 14 | 4 | 31 | 2 | 68 |
| 1990 | 11 | 14 | 6 | 28 | 2 | 61 |
| 1991 | 4 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 22 |
| 1992 | 3 | 13 | 6 | 5 | 27 | |
| 1993 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 21 |
| 1994 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 31 |
| 1995 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 22 | |
| 1996 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 26 |
| 1997 | 11 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 26 |
| 1998 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 12 |
| 1999 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 2000 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 12 | |
| 2001 | 3 | 3 | ||||
| 2002 | 3 | 1 | 4 | |||
| 2003 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 2004 | 1 | 14 | 2 | 4 | 21 | |
| 2005 | 2 | 16 | 1 | 19 | ||
| 2006 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 21 | |
| 2007 | 3 | 14 | 8 | 25 | ||
| 2008 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 2009 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | |
| 2010 | 5 | 2 | 7 | |||
| 2011 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 18 | ||
| 2012 | 2 | 13 | 15 | |||
| 2013 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 16 |
| 2014 | 7 | 20 | 5 | 4 | 36 | |
| 2015 | 14 | 72 | 11 | 8 | 105 | |
| 2016 | 16 | 120 | 28 | 4 | 13 | 181 |
| 2017 | 26 | 51 | 20 | 1 | 8 | 106 |
| 2018 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 24 | ||
| Total | 329 | 608 | 219 | 534 | 77 | 1767 |
Additional findings:
- During the last 50 years – from 1967 until March 2018 – the number of people who applied for Israeli citizenship (including living and deceased) is 1758, or 6.5% of the current population.
- Of the current total number of people who hold Israeli citizenship, the number of people who individually applied for it during the occupation has not exceeded 31% (Buqata: 39%; Majdal Shams: 46%; Masada: 41%; Ein Qynia: 32%; Ghajar 20%[iii]).
- The number of people who have inherited Israeli citizenship from their parents is greater than the number of people who have applied for Israeli citizenship (including before and after 1981).
Notes
[i] During this period, the Israeli authorities were making significant efforts to impose Israeli citizenship on Syrians in the Golan. Ghajar was cut off from the other Syrian villages by the Israeli military and the villages’ collective efforts to resist the imposition of citizenship. Eventually Ghajar’s village leader, who effectively held sole power, acquiesced to pressure from the Israeli authorities and decided that village residents should accept Israeli citizenship.
[ii] Al-Marsad is currently analysing newly obtained data in order to understand why there was an increase in applications in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
[iii] This figure represents individual citizenship applications, not the mass naturalisation process that took place in Ghajar in the 1980s.
Releated Posts
Elections in Syrian villages in occupied Golan
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.
EU diplomats visit the occupied Syrian Golan
Yesterday, 23 deputy ambassadors and senior diplomats from EU countries, and the EU delegation, visited Majdal Shams, one of the five remaining Syrian villages in the occupied Golan. The visit was to learn about the serious human rights situation of the Syrian population in the occupied Golan due to the Israeli occupation and the conflict in Syria.
2018 Universal Periodic Review of Israel
Al-Marsad calls on UN Human Rights Council members to raise human rights violations committed by Israel in the occupied Syrian Golan during Israel’s upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in January 2018.
Since Israel’s last Universal Periodic Review in 2012, it has continued to implement policies that violate the basic human rights of the Syrian population in the occupied Syrian Golan. Al-Marsad's submission for Israel’s UPR covers six categories of Israeli violations during this period: (1) Illegal settlements and exploitation of natural resources; (2) Discriminatory housing and planning policies, and home demolition; (3) Landmines; (4) Revocation of residency; (5) Family separation; and (6) Education.
Al-Marsad’s full submission is available here. In brief, it highlights that:
Illegal settlements and exploitation of natural resources
95% of the occupied Golan is controlled by Israeli settlers and the Israeli military, with only 5% controlled by the remaining Syrian population.
In 2017, for the first time, the number of Israeli settlers (26,000) overtook the number of Syrians (25,000) living in the occupied Golan. Note - this is a revised figure since the submission was made.
In 2016, the Israeli government approved the construction of 1600 new settlement units in the illegal Israeli settlement of Katzrin. This follows announcements by Israeli government ministers in 2015 to encourage 100,000 new settlers to move to the occupied Golan.
In 2015, an Israeli company, Afek Oil & Gas, commenced oil exploration in the occupied Golan. In addition to natural resource exploitation, tourism is a staple of the settlement economy. Tourism to illegal settlements is promoted by the Israeli government and tourism industry, which market the occupied Golan as ‘Northern Israel’.
Discriminatory housing and planning policies, and home demolition
Discriminatory land and housing policies have led to severe overcrowding in the remaining Syrian villages in the occupied Golan. Syrians are forced to build homes without building permits to meet their housing needs. They risk fines of up to tens of thousands of dollars, potentially doubling the cost of construction, and the full or partial demolition of their homes.
In 2016, a home in Majdal Shams was illegally demolished by the Israeli authorities. Another 80-90 Syrian home owners have been issued with demolition orders.
Under the 'Hermon National Park' plan, the Israeli authorities are currently seeking to designate 82 km2 of land around two of the remaining Syrian villages as a national park. This would further impede the expansion of these already overcrowded villages.
Landmines
The equivalent of over 6000 football pitches are suspected to be mined in the occupied Golan. The Israeli military has laid minefields in and adjacent to Syrian villages on the pretext of security – often within just a few metres of people’s houses and where their children play. New anti-personnel mines were laid by Israel as recently as 2011.
It is estimated that at least 66 Syrians have been victims of landmines in the occupied Syrian Golan. Among them, 16 died, half of whom were children.
Minefield clearance by the Israeli authorities prioritises locations around Israeli settlements and agricultural land over Syrian residential and agricultural zones, despite the higher concentration of landmines in these areas.
Revocation of residency
The majority of Syrians hold a form of permanent residency status similar to Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem. However, whilst Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem are permitted to have Jordanian nationality, Israel categorises the nationality of Syrians in the occupied Golan as ‘undefined’.
The permanent residency status can be revoked if an individual’s ‘centre of life’ changes or if citizenship of another country is obtained. Around 100 Syrians from the occupied Golan have had their permanent residency status revoked. Holders of the permanent residency status cannot vote in the Israeli Knesset and therefore have no political representation.
Family separation
It is estimated that those forcibly transferred or displaced from the occupied Golan following the occupation and their descendants amount to approximately 500,000 people. Given the conflict in Syria, many have become internally displaced persons (IDPs) for a second time in their lifetime, or refugees.
Education
Under an imposed Israeli curriculum, Syrian school children in the occupied Golan receive little instruction of Syrian and Arab history, geography, literature and culture. Schools do not observe Syrian national holidays. Syrians have little say in how their schools are run and what their children are taught. Many schools have building deficiencies and do not meet basic safety standards.
ENDS
Al-Marsad is an independent, not-for-profit, legal human rights organisation – it is the only human rights organisation operating in the occupied Syrian Golan. For additional information, please contact marsad@temp.local or researcher@temp.local
50 years of occupation: Al-Marsad advocacy tour in Europe
Al-Marsad director Dr Nizar Ayoub and urban planner Dr Nazeh Brik will be in Belgium to speak about the experiences of the native Syrian population under the Israeli occupation. This year marks the 50 year anniversary of the occupation, which started in June 1967.
Adalah and Al-Marsad demand Israel remove army outposts and minefields from occupied Syrian town in the Golan Heights
Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and Al-Marsad – Arab Human Rights Centre in the Golan Heights sent a letter to senior Israeli officials on 30 July 2017 demanding that they evacuate Israeli military outposts and minefields from the occupied Syrian town of Majdal Shams located in the Golan Heights.