Introduction:
In June 1967, after the fall of the Golan Heights under Israeli occupation, the majority of its residents were forcibly expelled, and their villages destroyed.
In September of the same year, just weeks after the expulsion of the displaced population, the occupation authorities established the first settlement — Merom Golan — on lands belonging to the displaced Syrians.
This step confirms that Israel, which had planned from the outset to seize the Golan Heights when it waged war against Syria, aimed to keep the territory under its control.
Today, the number of settlements established by the occupation authorities on lands it seized in 1967 has reached 35, including one small city (Katzrin, population 9,422) and 34 agricultural settlements (total population 22,185).
The settlements were built on the ruins and lands of the destroyed Syrian villages.
The creation of settlements required the establishment of an economic infrastructure nearby to ensure their stability and development, attract more settlers, and maintain full geographic control over the Golan.
Settlers, alongside the military, play a security role in controlling the land and the indigenous population.
Due to the abundance of water resources and fertile soil in the Golan, the settlement economy is dominated by agriculture. All settlements rely primarily on farming, except for Katzrin and Bene Yehuda.
Tourism has been developed as the second most important sector, while industry ranks third, with industrial centers established in Katzrin and Bene Yehuda.
The wine sector in the occupied Golan is an old industry linked to the Zionist settlement project, which took root on lands seized by Israel in 1967 after a campaign of ethnic cleansing that displaced about 95% of the Golan’s original Syrian population and destroyed their villages.
To read the full research:
