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95-782: The main source of the Banias River is the Banias spring, located at the southern base of the Hermon mountain range and contributing a discharge of 67·million m annually. From there the stream flows south for nine kilometers before draining into the Dan River just north of Sde Nehemia . Along the way, it drains the Guvta Stream (right), the Sa'ar Stream (left), the Pera' Stream (left), and

190-801: A Mediterranean-influenced warm-summer humid continental climate (Koppen: Dsb). During the Six-Day War in June 1967, a part of Mount Hermon in Syria was captured by Israel. This part was regained by Syria on October 6, 1973, the first day of the Yom Kippur War , following the First Battle of Mount Hermon . After being repelled in the Second Battle of Mount Hermon , the IDF recaptured both

285-639: A Kurdish proprietor with the prospects of purchasing the land, but the arrangement faltered. Jewish settlement in the region dwindled over time, due to Arab hostility, Turkish bureaucracy, disease and economic difficulties. In 1921–1930, during the French Mandate, the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PICA) obtained the deeds to the Rothschild estate and continued to manage it, collecting rents from

380-516: A dynastic alliance with Israel. However, by the mid-9th century BC, Aram-Damascus absorbed Geshur into its expanding territory. Aram-Damascus' rivalry with the Kingdom of Israel led to numerous military clashes in the Golan and Gilead regions throughout the 9th and 8th centuries BC. The Bible recounts two Israelite victories at Aphek, a location possibly corresponding to the modern-day Afik , near

475-811: A member of Muhammad 's tribe, the Quraish , was appointed governor of Syria, including the Golan. Following the assassination of his cousin, the Caliph Uthman , Muawiya claimed the Caliphate for himself, initiating the Umayyad dynasty. Over the next few centuries, while remaining in Muslim hands, the Golan passed through many dynastic changes, falling first to the Abbasids , then to the Shi'ite Fatimids , then to

570-568: A prominent city and major stronghold. It housed one of the earliest known synagogues , believed to have been constructed in the late 1st century BC, when the Temple in Jerusalem was still standing. After Philip's death in 34 AD, the Romans absorbed the Golan into the province of Syria , but Caligula restored the territory to Herod's grandson Agrippa in 37. Following Agrippa's death in 44,

665-592: A rise in settlements from the 2nd millennium BCE onwards. These were small settlements located on the slopes overlooking the Sea of Galilee or nearby gorges. They may correspond to the " cities of the Land of Ga[šu]ru' " mentioned in Amarna Letter #256.5, written by the prince of Pihilu ( Pella ). This suggests a different form of political organization compared to the prevalent city-states of the region, such as Hatzor to

760-727: A strategic observation post for monitoring Syrian and Lebanese military activity near Mitzpe Shlagim ("Snow Lookout"), which is at an elevation of about 2,224 m (7,300 ft). Its neighboring peak, at 2,236 m (7,336 ft), is the highest elevation in Israeli-controlled territory, and is called Mitze Hashlagim by Israel. Since the onset of the Syrian Civil War , the Syrian-controlled Hermon has continued to be under pro-government forces , though clashes have sporadically erupted on

855-590: A survey of the entire Golan Heights on behalf of the German Society for the Exploration of the Holy Land, publishing his findings in a map and book entitled The Jaulân . In 1880, Laurence Oliphant published Eretz ha-Gilad (The Land of Gilead ), which described a plan for large-scale Jewish settlement in the Golan. In 1884, there were still open stretches of uncultivated land between villages in

950-513: A wide range of ski trails at novice, intermediate, and expert levels. It also offers additional winter family activities such as sledding and Nordic skiing . Those who operate the Hermon Ski area live in the nearby Israeli settlement of Neve Ativ and the Druze town of Majdal Shams . The ski resort has a ski school, ski patrol, and several restaurants located at either the bottom or peak of

1045-597: A year leading up to the Six-Day War and the Syrian attacks have been called: "largely symbolic". Former Israeli General Mattityahu Peled said that more than half of the border clashes before the 1967 war "were a result of our security policy of maximum settlement in the demilitarised area". Israeli incursions into the zone were responded to with Syrians shooting. Israel in turn would retaliate with military force. The narrative of Syrians attacking "innocent" Israel from

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1140-583: Is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria . It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in the north and Wadi Raqqad in the east. Two thirds of the area has been occupied by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War and then effectively annexed in 1981 – an action unrecognized by

1235-399: Is a cluster of mountains with three distinct summits , each about the same height. Most of the portion of Mount Hermon within the Israeli-controlled area constitutes the Hermon nature reserve . The mountain forms one of the greatest geographic resources of the area. Because of its height it captures a great deal of precipitation in a very dry area of the world. The Jurassic limestone

1330-447: Is a sacred building made of hewn blocks of stone on the summit of Mount Hermon. Known as Qasr Antar , it is the highest temple of the ancient world and was documented by Sir Charles Warren in 1869. An inscription on a limestone stele recovered by Warren from Qasr Antar was translated by George Nickelsburg to read "According to the command of the greatest a(nd) Holy God, those who take an oath (proceed) from here." Nickelsburg connected

1425-707: Is an Arabized version of the Canaanite and Hebrew name. Arab cartographers of the Byzantine period referred to the area as jabal ( جَبَل , 'mountain'), though the region is a plateau. The name Golan Heights was not used before the 19th century. The Venus of Berekhat Ram , a pebble from the Lower Paleolithic era found in the Golan Heights, may have been carved by Homo erectus between 700,000 and 230,000 BC. The southern Golan saw

1520-401: Is broken by faults and solution channels to form a karst topography . Mount Hermon has seasonal winter and spring snow falls , which cover all three of its peaks for most of the year. Melt water from the snow-covered mountain's western and southern bases seeps into the rock channels and pores, feeding springs at the base of the mountain, which form streams and rivers . These merge to become

1615-633: Is first attested by the Jewish historian Josephus . His account likely reflects Roman administrative changes implemented after the Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE). The Greek name for the region is Gaulanîtis ( Γαυλανῖτις ). In the Mishnah the name is Gablān similar to Aramaic language names for the region: Gawlāna , Guwlana and Gublānā . The Arabic name is Jawlān , sometimes romanized as Djolan , which

1710-469: Is not certain, nor is their location, which is not conclusively to be identified with Deir al-Achayer, but was possibly the Roman sanctuary or the name of a settlement in the area. Eusebius recognized the religious importance of Hermon in his work Onomasticon (probably written in the first quarter of the 4th century), saying "Until today, the mount in front of Banias and Lebanon is known as Hermon and it

1805-624: Is null and void and without international legal effect". After the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011, control of the Syrian-administered part of the Golan Heights was split between the state government and Syrian opposition forces , with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) maintaining a 266 km (103 sq mi) buffer zone in between to help implement

1900-537: Is respected by nations as a sanctuary". According to the Köppen climate classification , the weather station at Mount Hermon features a warm-summer Mediterranean climate ( Csb ). The climate might also more specifically be described as oro - Mediterranean ( CsbH ). Its temperature range is relatively narrow, while its yearly variation in precipitation is very wide; with mild, rainless summers, and chilly, very wet and often snowy winters. The peak, at 2814 meters, has

1995-646: The Arabic term al-ḥaram , which means " sacred enclosure ". The Epic of Gilgamesh mentions that Mount Hermon split after Gilgamesh killed Humbaba , the Guardian of the Cedar Forest. One translation of Tablet V states, "The ground split open with the heels of their feet, as they whirled around in circles Mt. Hermon and Lebanon split." The mountain or summit is referred to as Saphon in Ugaritic texts where

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2090-629: The Battle of Yarmouk in 636. Data from surveys and excavations combined show that the bulk of sites in the Golan were abandoned between the late 6th and early 7th century as a result of military incursions, the breakdown of law and order, and the economy brought on by the weakening of the Byzantine rule. Some settlements lasted till the end of the Umayyad era. After the Battle of Yarmouk, Muawiyah I ,

2185-758: The Jewish revolt against Gallus in 351 CE. However, some of these sites were later rebuilt and continued to be inhabited in subsequent centuries. In the 5th century, the Byzantine Empire assigned the Ghassanids , a Christian Arab tribe that had settled in Syria , the task of protecting its eastern borders against the Sasanian -allied Arab tribe, the Lakhmids . The Ghassanids had emigrated from Yemen in

2280-519: The Jordan River . The runoff facilitates fertile plant life below the snow line, where vineyards and pine , oak , and poplar trees are abundant. Two Jewish liturgical poems from the 8th and 10th centuries indicate that vineyards were cultivated in the Hermon area during the early medieval period. The springs, and the mountain itself, are much contested by the nations of the area for

2375-732: The Mamluk commander and future sultan Qutuz at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260. The victory at Ain Jalut ensured Mamluk dominance of the region for the next 250 years. In the 16th century, the Ottoman Turks conquered Syria. During this time, the Golan formed part of the Hauran Sanjak . Some Druze communities were established in the Golan during the 17th and 18th centuries. The villages abandoned during previous periods due to raids by Bedouin tribes were not resettled until

2470-838: The Mamluk Sultanate succeeded one another in control of the Golan, before the region was conquered by the Ottoman Empire In the 16th century. Within Ottoman Syria , the Golan was part of the Syria Vilayet . The area later became part of the French Mandate in Syria and the State of Damascus . When the mandate terminated in 1946, it became part of the newly independent Syrian Arab Republic , spanning about 1,800 km (690 sq mi). Since

2565-715: The Mosaic of Rehob . After the Assyrian period, about four centuries provide limited archaeological finds in the Golan. The Golan Heights, along with the rest of the region, came under the control of Alexander the Great in 332 BC, following the Battle of Issus . Following Alexander's death, the Golan came under the domination of the Macedonian general Seleucus and remained part of the Seleucid Empire for most of

2660-783: The Mount Sinai mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, with the biblical story reminiscent of an ancient battle of the northern tribes with the Egyptians somewhere in the Jordan Valley or Golan Heights. R.T. France , in his book on the Gospel of Matthew , noted that Mount Hermon was a possible location of the Transfiguration of Jesus , just as it has elsewhere been described as the site accepted by most scholars. There

2755-701: The Passover riots of 1920 . In 1944 the JNF bought the Bnei Yehuda lands from their Jewish owners, but a later attempt to establish Jewish ownership of the property in Bir e-Shagum through the courts was not successful. Between 1891 and 1894, Baron Edmond James de Rothschild purchased around 150,000 Dunams of land in the Golan and the Hawran for Jewish settlement. Legal and political permits were secured and ownership of

2850-629: The Seljuk Turks . An earthquake devastated the Jewish village of Katzrin in 746 AD. Following it, there was a brief period of greatly diminished occupation during the Abbasid period (approximately 750–878). Jewish communities persisted at least into the Middle Ages in the towns of Fiq in the southern Golan and Nawa in Batanaea. For many centuries nomadic tribes lived together with

2945-421: The War over Water . In 1955, Israel launched an attack that killed 56 Syrian soldiers. The attack was condemned by the United Nations Security Council. in July 1966, Fatah began raids into Israeli territory, with active support from Syria. At first the militants entered via Lebanon or Jordan, but those countries made concerted attempts to stop them and raids directly from Syria increased. Israel's response

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3040-405: The apocryphal Book of Enoch , Mount Hermon is the place where the Watcher class of fallen angels descended to Earth. They swear upon the mountain that they would take wives among the daughters of men and take mutual imprecation for their sin ( Enoch 6 ). According to the controversial research by Professor Israel Knohl of the Hebrew University, in his book "Hashem", Mount Hermon is actually

3135-410: The border between Syria and Lebanon and, at 2,814 m (9,232 ft) above sea level , is the highest point in Syria . On the top, in the United Nations buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli-occupied territories, is the highest permanently manned UN position in the world, known as "Hermon Hotel", located at 2814 metres altitude (9,232 ft). The southern slopes of Mount Hermon extend to

3230-406: The international community , which continues to consider it Israeli-occupied Syrian territory. The earliest evidence of human habitation on the Golan dates to the Upper Paleolithic period. During the Iron Age , it was home to biblical Geshur , which was later incorporated into Aram-Damascus . After Assyrian , Babylonian and Persian rule, the region came under the control of Alexander

3325-462: The northern revolt in 67 AD by capturing Gamla after a siege. Josephus reports that the people of Gamla opted for mass suicide , throwing themselves into a ravine. Today, the visible breach in the wall near the synagogue, along with remnants such as fortress walls, tower ruins, armor fragments, various projectiles, and fire damage, testify to the siege's intensity. Following the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, many Jews fled north to Galilee and

3420-437: The province of Judaea , the Jewish communities in the area participated in the revolt. Initially, Gamla was loyal to Rome, but later the town switched allegiance and even minted its own revolt coins. Josephus, who was appointed by the provisional government in Jerusalem as commander of Galilee, fortified the cities of Sogana, Seleucia, and Gamla in the Golan. The Roman military, under Vespasian 's command, eventually ended

3515-414: The 1923 boundary in order to claim the Hula swamp , gain exclusive rights to Lake Galilee and divert water from the Jordan for its National Water Carrier . During the 1950s, Syria registered two principal territorial accomplishments: it took over Al Hammah enclosure south of Lake Tiberias and established a de facto presence on and control of the eastern shore of the lake. Israel expelled Arabs from

3610-427: The Amorites call it Senir ", but elsewhere ( 1Chr 5:23 ) seems to distinguish between Senir and Hermon, probably using the names for two of the three peaks of the Hermon range, while in Psalm 42:6 the Hebrew text uses the plural form, Hermonim, possibly also a reference to the three peaks. The Book of Chronicles mentions Mount Hermon as a place where Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jahdiel were

3705-419: The Arab peasants living there. Great Britain accepted a Mandate for Palestine at the meeting of the Allied Supreme Council at San Remo , but the borders of the territory were not defined at that stage. The boundary between the forthcoming British and French mandates was defined in broad terms by the Franco-British Boundary Agreement of December 1920. That agreement placed the bulk of the Golan Heights in

3800-401: The Banias Ridge in the early 1950s, leaving only the southern part of the stream under Israeli jurisdiction. In 1964, Syria mobilized heavy engineering equipment in the area and initiated a project to divert the stream eastward, aiming to prevent its waters from reaching Israel, which contravened international law. Israel strongly opposed this action, sparking an intense conflict over control of

3895-423: The Byzantine village of Deir Qeruh in the Golan, located near Gamla. The church has a square apse - a feature known from ancient Syria and Jordan, but not present in churches west of the Jordan River . The Ghassanids were able to hold on to the Golan until the Sassanid invasion of 614. Following a brief restoration under the Emperor Heraclius , the Golan again fell, this time to the invading Muslim Arabs after

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3990-430: The DMZ and demolished their homes. Palestinian refugees were denied the right of return or compensation, and because of this they started raids on Israel. The Syrian government supported the Palestinian attacks because of Israel taking over more land in the DMZ. The Jordan Valley Unified Water Plan was sponsored by the United States and agreed by the technical experts of the Arab League and Israel. The US funded

4085-471: The Druze and the Circassians were often in conflict for local dominance. These struggles subsided with the Ottoman government's formal recognition of the Al Fadl's tribal territory and pasturelands in the Golan, which were invested in the name of the tribe's emir. The emir relocated to Damascus and collected rents from his tribesmen who thereafter settled in the area and engaged in a combination of farming and pastoralism. The tribe settled in several villages in

4180-419: The French sphere. The treaty also established a joint commission to settle the precise details of the border and mark it on the ground. The commission submitted its final report on 3 February 1922, and it was approved with some caveats by the British and French governments on 7 March 1923, several months before Britain and France assumed their Mandatory responsibilities on 29 September 1923. In accordance with

4275-431: The Golan Heights became part of the newly independent state of Syria and was later incorporated into Quneitra Governorate . After the 1948–49 Arab–Israeli War , the Golan Heights were partly demilitarized by the Israel-Syria Armistice Agreement . During the following years, the area along the border witnessed thousands of violent incidents; the armistice agreement was being violated by both sides. The underlying causes of

4370-424: The Golan Heights has been called "historical revisionism". In 1976, former Israeli defense minister Moshe Dayan said Israel provoked more than 80% of the clashes with Syria in the run up to the 1967 war, although two Israeli historians debate whether he was "giving an accurate account of the situation in 1967 or whether his version of what happened was colored by his disgrace after the 1973 Middle East war, when he

4465-518: The Golan were Jabiyah and Jawlan , situated in the eastern Golan beyond the Ruqqad . The Ghassanids settled deep inside the Byzantine limes , and in a Syriac source for July 519, they are attested as having their "opulent" headquarters in the eastern Gaulantis. Like the Herodian dynasty before them, the Ghassanids ruled as a client state of Rome – this time, the Christianized Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantium. In 529, Emperor Justinian appointed al-Harith ibn Jabalah as Phylarch , making him

4560-409: The Golan were inhabited. By the late 19th century, the Golan Heights was mostly inhabited by Arabs , Turkmen and Circassians . The Circassians, part of a large influx of refugees from the Caucasus into the empire as a result of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, were encouraged to settle in the Golan by the Ottoman authorities. They were granted lands with a 12-year tax exemption. The Al Fadl,

4655-422: The Golan, further increasing the Jewish population in the region. Another notable surge in Jewish migration to the Golan took place in the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt , c. 135 AD. During this time, Jews remained a minority of the population in the Golan. In the later Roman and Byzantine periods, the area was administered as part of Phoenicia Prima and Syria Palaestina , and finally Golan/Gaulanitis

4750-400: The Great ascended to power in Judaea during the latter half of the first century BC, the region as far as Trachonitis , Batanea and Auranitis was put under his control by Augustus Caesar . Following the death of Herod the Great in 4 BC, Augustus Caesar adjudicated that the Golan fell within the Tetrarchy of Herod's son, Herod Philip I . The capital of Jewish Galaunitis, Gamla , was

4845-485: The Great in 332 BC. The Iturean kingdom and the Hasmonean dynasty briefly ruled the Golan, then the Roman Empire took control, first via the Herodian dynasty and then ruling directly. Afterwards, the Byzantine -aligned Ghassanid kingdom ruled the Golan from the 3rd century AD, until the region was annexed by the Rashidun Caliphate during the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 7th century. The Umayyad Caliphate , Abbasid Caliphate , Fatimid Caliphate and

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4940-577: The Hermon range constitutes the southernmost part, extends for approximately 150 km (93 mi) in a northeast–southwest direction, running parallel to the Lebanon range on the west. The relatively narrow Hermon range, with the Lebanon-Syria boundary along its spine, extends for 70 km (43 mi), from 25 km (16 mi) northeast of Mt. Hermon to 45 km (28 mi) southwest of it. The Hermon range covers an area of about 700 km (270 sq mi) of which about 70 km (27 sq mi) are under Israeli control. Mount Hermon

5035-403: The Israeli and Jordanian water diversion projects, when they pledged to abide by the plan's allocations. President Nasser too, assured the US that the Arabs would not exceed the plan's water quotas. However, in the early 1960s the Arab League funded a Syrian water diversion project that would have denied Israel use of a major portion of its water allocation. The resulting armed clashes are called

5130-415: The Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights , where the Mount Hermon ski resort is located with a top elevation of 2,040 m (6,690 ft). A peak located about 11 kilometres (7 miles) south-southwest of Mount Hermon, known as Mitzpe Hashlagim , is the highest point in the entirety of Israel when including Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, at 2,236 m (7,336 ft). The Anti-Lebanon range, of which

5225-437: The Israeli–Syrian ceasefire across the Purple Line . From 2012 to 2018, the eastern half of the Golan Heights became a scene of repeated battles between the Syrian Army , rebel factions of the Syrian opposition (including the United States-backed Southern Front ) as well as various jihadist organizations such as al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant -affiliated Khalid ibn al-Walid Army . In July 2018,

5320-428: The Jordan River's water resources. A pivotal moment in this conflict was the IDF 's operation on August 12, 1965, when they successfully destroyed the diversion equipment in a battle involving artillery and tanks. Despite Syrian efforts, they managed to dig only a small portion of the diversion before the area was later captured by Israel during the Six-Day War . During that conflict, a Syrian tank battalion ventured into

5415-494: The Romans again annexed the Golan to Syria, promptly to return it again when Claudius traded the Golan to Agrippa II , the son of Agrippa I, in 51 as part of a land swap. By the time of the Great Jewish revolt , which began in 66 AD, parts of the Golan Heights were predominantly inhabited by Jews. Josephus depicts the western and central Golan as densely populated with cities that emerged on fertile stony soil. Despite nominally being under Agrippa's control and situated outside

5510-418: The Sea of Galilee. During the 8th century BC, the Assyrians conquered the region, incorporating it into the province of Qarnayim, likely including Damascus as well. This period was succeeded by the Babylonian and the Achaemenid Empire . In the 5th century BC, the Achaemenid Empire allowed the region to be resettled by returning Jewish exiles from the Babylonian Captivity , a fact that has been noted in

5605-407: The Shavei Zion Association based in New York, but the project was abandoned after a year when the Turks issued an edict in 1896 evicting the 17 non-Turkish families. A later attempt to resettle the site with Syrian Jews who were Ottoman citizens also failed. Between 1904 and 1908, a group of Crimean Jews settled near the Arab village of al-Butayha in the Bethsaida Valley , initially as tenants of

5700-517: The Sion (Ar.: el-'Asl) Stream (right), with a total drainage area of 158 km. The total annual streamflow of the river comes to 106 million m. The banks of the river abound in willow trees, oriental planes , silver-leaf poplars , Tabor oaks , Palestine oaks , Mt. Atlas mastics , terebinths , carobs , ferns, giant canes , and various vines. The stream is home to a variety of fluvial fish, including longhead barbel , large-scale barbel , Damascus barbel , and tilapia . Living and roaming around

5795-414: The Six-Day War of 1967, the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights has been occupied and administered by Israel, whereas the eastern third remains under the control of Syria. Following the war, Syria dismissed any negotiations with Israel as part of the Khartoum Resolution at the 1967 Arab League summit . Construction of Israeli settlements began in the remainder of the territory held by Israel, which

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5890-416: The Syrian government regained full control over the eastern Golan Heights. In the Bible, Golan is mentioned as a city of refuge located in Bashan : Deuteronomy 4:43 , Joshua 20:8 , 1 Chronicles 6:71 . Nineteenth-century authors interpreted the word Golan as meaning "something surrounded , hence a district ". The shift in the meaning of Golan, from a town to a broader district or territory,

5985-407: The agreement, the stream itself would remain within British Mandate territory, while the village and springs would fall under French Mandate control ( therefor, part of Syria). Following the armistice agreements after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, areas west of the international boundary line captured by Syria were designated as demilitarized zones. In practice, Syria took control of the northern part of

6080-403: The area and controlled important roads to Damascus, Galilee and Lebanon. In the 19th century the tribe continued to expand their territory in the Golan and built two palaces. The leader of the tribe joined Prince Faisal during the Arab revolt , and they supported the uprising against the French in the northern Golan. In 1885, civil engineer and architect, Gottlieb Schumacher , conducted

6175-462: The area to the Hasmonean kingdom of Judaea . Following this conquest, the Hasmoneans encouraged Jewish migrants from Judea to settle in the Golan. Most scholars agree that this settlement began after the Hasmonean conquest, though it might have started earlier, probably in the mid-2nd century BC. Over the next century, Jewish settlement in the Golan and nearby regions became widespread, reaching north to Damascus and east to Naveh . When Herod

6270-437: The area, and during ensuing engagements, one of the tanks ended up submerged in the streambed, where it remained. Mount Hermon Mount Hermon ( Arabic : جبل الشيخ or جبل حرمون / ALA-LC : Jabal al-Shaykh ('Mountain of the Sheikh ') or Jabal Haramun ; Hebrew : הַר חֶרְמוֹן , Har Ḥermōn ) is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range . Its summit straddles

6365-408: The area. In 2005, the Syrian government had plans to develop a 15-billion-dollar ski resort on the slopes of the mountain. Golan Heights The Golan Heights ( Arabic : هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ , romanized :  Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or مُرْتَفَعَاتُ الْجَوْلَانِ , Murtafaʻātu l-Jawlān ; Hebrew : רמת הגולן , Ramat HaGolan , pronunciation ), or simply the Golan ,

6460-409: The central Golan. Due to financial hardships and the long wait for a kushan (Ottoman land deed) the village, Golan be-Bashan, was abandoned after a year. Soon afterwards, the society regrouped and purchased 2,000 dunams of land from the village of Bir e-Shagum on the western slopes of the Golan. The village they established, Bnei Yehuda , existed until 1920. The last families left in the wake of

6555-432: The central Golan. These synagogues, built from the abundant basalt stones of the region, were influenced by those in the Galilee but exhibited their own distinctive characteristics; prominent examples include Umm el-Qanatir , Qatzrin and Deir Aziz . Some of the early Jerusalem Talmud tractates may have been arranged and edited during this period in Qatzrin. Several sites in the Golan show evidence of destruction from

6650-401: The conflict were a disagreement over the legal status of the demilitarised zone (DMZ), cultivation of land within it and competition over water resources. Syria claimed that neither party had sovereignty over the DMZ. Israel contended that the Armistice Agreement dealt solely with military concerns and that it had political and legal rights over the DMZ. Israel wanted to assert control up till

6745-443: The formerly Israeli-occupied sector and the pre-Yom Kippur War Syrian-controlled sector on October 21, 1973, during Operation Dessert , also known as the Third battle of Mount Hermon. The pre-Yom Kippur War Syrian-controlled sector was returned to Syria after the war. The Israeli-occupied sector of the mountain became patrolled by the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Police , and the Israeli Security Forces have maintained

6840-730: The heads of their families ( 1 Chronicles 5:23–24 ). In Psalm 42 , which leads the Psalms of the northern kingdom, the Psalmist remembers God from the land of Jordan and the Hermonites. In Song of Songs 4:8 , Hermon is an instance of an exotic locale, and Psalm 133 , one of the Songs of Ascents , makes specific reference to the abundant dew formation upon Mount Hermon. The Book of Ezekiel (27:5), meanwhile, praises its cypresses (referring to it by its alternate name Senir (cf. Deut. 3:9). In

6935-450: The inscription with the oath taken by the angels under Semjaza who took an oath together, bound by a curse , in order to take human wives in the Book of Enoch ( 1 Enoch 6:6). Hermon was said to have become known as "the mountain of oath" by Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau . The name of God was supposed to be a Hellenized version of Baʿal or Hadad and Nickelsburg connected it with

7030-570: The land was registered in late 1894. The Jews also built a road stretching from Lake Hula to Muzayrib . The Agudat Ahim society, whose headquarters were in Yekaterinoslav , Russia, acquired 100,000 dunams of land in several locations in the districts of Fiq and Daraa . A plant nursery was established and work began on farm buildings in Jillin . A village called Tiferet Binyamin was established on lands purchased from Saham al-Jawlan by

7125-575: The leader of all Arab tribes and bestowing upon him the title of Patricius, ranking just below the Emperor. Christians and Arabs became the majority in the Golan with the arrival of the Ghassanids to the region. In CE 377, a sanctuary for John the Baptist was established in the Golan village of Er-Ramthaniyye . The sanctuary was often visited by the Ghassanids. In the 6th century, the Golan

7220-719: The lower Golan, but by the mid-1890s most were owned and cultivated. Some land had been purchased in the Golan and Hawran by Zionist associations based in Romania, Bulgaria, the United States and England, in the late 19th century and early 20th century. In the winter of 1885, members of the Old Yishuv in Safed formed the Beit Yehuda Society and purchased 15,000 dunams of land from the village of Ramthaniye in

7315-743: The mountain range and spilled into Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied portion. Most notably the Islamist rebel factions of Jaish al-Haramoun took part in the fighting on the Southern slopes of the mountain. Since 1981, when the Golan Heights Law was passed, the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights has been governed under Israeli law. Mount Hermon hosts the only ski resort in territory held by Israel, including

7410-522: The next two centuries. In the middle of the 2nd century BC, Itureans moved into the Golan, occupying over one hundred locations in the region. Iturean stones and pottery have been found in the area. Itureans also built several temples, one of them in function up until the Islamic conquest. Around 83–81 BC, the Golan was captured by the Hasmonean king and high priest Alexander Jannaeus , annexing

7505-593: The palace of Ba'al is located in a myth about Attar . In Deuteronomy 3:8–9 and Joshua 12:1 and 13:11 , Mount Hermon is depicted as the northern boundary of the Amorite kingdom, which following the conquest by Joshua was awarded to the half- tribe of Manasseh east of the Jordan River . The Hebrew Bible uses three names for Mount Hermon, stating in Deut 3:9 that "the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion , while

7600-530: The period between the first Arab–Israeli War and the Six-Day War, the Syrians constantly harassed Israeli border communities by firing artillery shells from their dominant positions on the Golan Heights. In October 1966 Israel brought the matter up before the United Nations. Five nations sponsored a resolution criticizing Syria for its actions but it failed to pass. No Israeli civilian was killed in half

7695-400: The place name of Baal-Hermon (Lord of Hermon) and the deity given by Enoch as "The Great Holy One". Another Greek inscription found in a large temple at Deir El Aachayer on the northern slopes notes the year that a bench was installed "in the year 242, under Beeliabos , also called Diototos , son of Abedanos , high priest of the gods of Kiboreia ". The era of the gods of Kiboreia

7790-418: The reigns of Diocletian and Constantine , in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries AD, led to a resurgence of Jewish life in the Golan. Excavations at various synagogue sites have uncovered ceramics and coins that provide evidence of this resettlement. During this period, several synagogues were constructed, and today 25 locations with ancient synagogues or their remnants have been discovered, all situated in

7885-532: The same process, a nearby parcel of land that included the ancient site of Tel Dan and the Dan spring were transferred from Syria to Palestine early in 1924. The Golan Heights, including the spring at Wazzani and the one at Banias , became part of French Syria , while the Sea of Galilee was placed entirely within British Mandatory Palestine. When the French Mandate for Syria ended in 1944,

7980-689: The second half of the 19th century. During the Crusades , the Golan represented an obstacle to the Crusader armies, who nevertheless held the strategically important town of Banias twice, in 1128–32 and 1140–64. After victories by Sultan Nur ad-Din Zangi , it was the Kurdish dynasty of the Ayyubids under Sultan Saladin who ruled the area. The Mongols swept through in 1259, but were driven off by

8075-559: The second half of the 19th century. Throughout the 18th century, the Al Fadl , an Arab tribe long established in the Levant, struggled against Turkmen and Kurdish tribesmen over supremacy in the Golan. The Fadl's presence in the Golan was observed by Burckhardt in the early 19th century. In 1868, the region was described as "almost entirely desolate". According to a travel handbook of the time, only 11 of 127 ancient towns and villages in

8170-470: The sedentary population in the region. At times, the central government attempted to settle the nomads which would result in the establishment of permanent communities. When the power of the governing regime declined, as happened during the early Muslim period, nomadic trends increased and many of the rural agricultural villages were abandoned due to harassment from the Bedouins . They were not resettled until

8265-568: The stream or in it are wild boars , Syrian rock hyrax , swamp cats , nutria , and Indian porcupines . Birds that frequent the vicinity of the stream include rock doves and Western rock nuthatch . The Newcombe-Paulet Agreement of 1923, endorsed later by the League of Nations, delineated the international boundary between the British Mandate and the French Mandate, effectively separating Palestine from Syria and Lebanon. According to

8360-404: The third century and actively supported Byzantium against Persia. They were initially nomadic but gradually became semi-sedentary, and adopted Christianity along with a number of Arab tribes situated in the borders of the Byzantine Empire in the 3rd and 4th centuries. The Ghassanids had adopted Monophysitism in the 5th century. At the end of the 5th century, the primary Ghassanid encampments in

8455-558: The use of the water. Mount Hermon is also called the "snowy mountain," the "gray-haired mountain", and the "mountain of snow". It is also called "the eyes of the nation" in Israel because its elevation makes it Israel's primary strategic early warning system . Various temples can be found in villages on the slopes of Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon's name has been related to the Semitic root ḥrm , which means " taboo " or "consecrated", and

8550-572: The west and Ashteroth to the east. During the Late Bronze Age, the Golan was only sparsely inhabited. Following the Late Bronze Age collapse , the Golan was home to the newly formed kingdom of Geshur , likely a continuation of the earlier " Land of Ga[šu]ru ". The Hebrew Bible mentions it as a distinct entity during the reign of David (10th century BC). David's marriage to Maacha, daughter of King Talmai of Geshur, supports

8645-675: Was under a military administration until the Knesset passed the Golan Heights Law in 1981, which applied Israeli law to the territory; the move has been described as an annexation . The Golan Heights Law was condemned by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 497 , which stated that "the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction, and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights

8740-573: Was a series of retaliatory raids, of which the largest were an attack on the Jordanian village of Samu in November 1966. In April 1967, after Syria heavily shelled Israeli villages from the Golan Heights, Israel shot down six Syrian MiG fighter planes and warned Syria against future attacks. The Israelis used to send tractors with armed police into the DMZ, which prompted Syria firing at Israel. In

8835-577: Was forced to resign as Defense Minister over the failure to anticipate the Arab attack." The provocation was sending a tractor to plow in the demilitarized areas to get the Syrians to attack. The Syrians responded by firing at the tractors and shelling Israeli settlements . Jan Mühren, a former UN observer in the area at the time, told a Dutch current affairs programme that Israel "provoked most border incidents as part of its strategy to annex more land". UN officials blamed both Israel and Syria for destabilizing

8930-555: Was included together with Peraea in Palaestina Secunda , after 218 AD . The area of the ancient kingdom of Bashan was incorporated into the province of Batanea . By the close of the second century, Judah ha-Nasi was granted a lease for 2,000 units of land in the Golan. An excavation held at Hippos has recently discovered an unknown Roman road that connected the Sea of Galilee with the city of Nawa in Syria . The political and economic recovery of Palestine during

9025-464: Was inhabited by the well-established Jews and Ghassanid Christians. The Jewish population in the Golan engaged in agriculture, as evidenced by pre-Islamic Arab poet Muraqquish the Younger, who mentioned wine brought by Jewish traders from the region, and local synagogues may have been funded by the prosperous production of olive oil. A monastery and church dedicated to Saint George has been found in

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