United States Recognizes Israeli Sovereignty Over the Golan Heights

In a reversal of decades of U.S. foreign policy, on March 25, 2019, President Trump issued a presidential proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic piece of territory captured by Israel from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967. This move, which generated international criticism, is the latest in a series of actions by the Trump administration that advance the interests of the Israeli government.

On March 21, 2019, Trump tweeted that “[a]fter 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!”¹ In remarks later that day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, joined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Jerusalem, stated that:

President Trump has just made history. I called him. I thanked him on behalf of the people of Israel. He did it again. First he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved the U.S. embassy here. Then he pulled out of the disastrous Iran treaty and re-imposed sanctions. But now he did something of equal historic importance. He recognized Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and he did so at a time when Iran is trying to use Syria as a platform to attack and destroy Israel. And the message that President Trump has given the world is that America stands by Israel.²

Four days later, Trump formalized his position by issuing a presidential proclamation declaring the new U.S. position on the status of the disputed territory. It reads, in part:

The State of Israel took control of the Golan Heights in 1967 to safeguard its security from external threats. Today, aggressive acts by Iran and terrorist groups, including Hizballah, in southern Syria continue to make the Golan Heights a potential launching ground for attacks on Israel. Any possible future peace agreement in the region must account for Israel's need to protect itself from Syria and other regional threats. Based on these unique circumstances, it is therefore appropriate to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.³

In a signing ceremony with Prime Minister Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman on the same day, Trump remarked:

Under my administration, the unbreakable alliance between the United States and Israel has never been stronger. You read things; you hear things. It's never been stronger. Just remember that. People talk, but it's only talk. Our relationship is powerful.

At this moment, the American Embassy stands proudly in Jerusalem, the capital the Jewish people have established. And they've wanted the Embassy for many, many years, for many decades, and frankly, through many Presidents. And we got it done. Not only did we get it done, we also got it built at a slight cost saving, like about $1 billion cost saving.⁴

For his part, Netanyahu emphasized the importance of the Golan Heights to Israel's strategic interests.⁵ He also lavished praise on Trump:

In the long sweep of Jewish history, there have been a handful of proclamations by non-Jewish leaders on behalf of our people in our land: Cyrus the Great, the great Persian king; Lord Balfour; President Harry S. Truman; and President Donald J. Trump. And you, Mr. President—Mr. President, you've done it not once but twice, with your bold proclamation on Jerusalem and with your bold proclamation today on the Golan.⁶

The U.S. decision was made several weeks before Israeli parliamentary elections on April 9, 2019, in which Netanyahu was locked in a close reelection campaign against rival Benny Gantz.⁷ Netanyahu had reportedly asked Trump to recognize the Golan Heights as part of Israel on at least two prior occasions: once in 2017,⁸ and again in 2018, after Trump declared that he would move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.⁹ In an interview following his Twitter announcement, Trump stated that he had been contemplating the move for a “long time” and disclaimed any intention to help Netanyahu in the elections, explaining, “I wouldn't even know about that. . . . I have no idea. I hear he is doing okay?”¹⁰ U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton justified the decision on national security grounds, writing on Twitter that “[t]o allow Golan Heights to be controlled by the likes of the Syrian or Iranian regimes would turn a blind eye to the atrocities of Assad and the destabilizing presence of Iran in the region. Strengthening Israel's security enhances our ability to fight common threats together.”¹¹

Captured by Israel during the Six-Day War in June 1967, the Golan Heights is a plateau located between northeastern Israel and southwestern Syria that is home to approximately 20,000 Israeli settlers and 20,000 Syrian Druze.¹² The international community has never recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, consistent with the view that an occupying power cannot unilaterally annex territory.¹³ In November 1967, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 242, the most significant provision of which:

Affirms that the fulfillment of [UN] Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:

1. (i) Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;

2. (ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force[.]¹⁴

Following Resolution 242, Israel continued to occupy the Golan Heights, and Syria attempted unsuccessfully to seize back control during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Security Council Resolution 338, which called for an end to the Yom Kippur War, also called for the immediate implementation of Resolution 242 after the cease fire.¹⁵ The following year, Resolution 350 established a UN peacekeeping force in the Golan Heights that continues to this day.¹⁶

Several years later, in 1981, Israel legislated to make Israeli law applicable to the Golan Heights,¹⁷ a development that was perceived as a move towards annexation. The Security Council responded by passing Resolution 497, “[d]ecid[ing] that the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect” and demanding that Israel rescind its decision.¹⁸ When Israel failed to comply with the resolution, the Security Council considered another resolution that would have “decide[d] that all member states should consider applying concrete and effective measures in order to nullify the Israeli annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights and to refrain from providing any assistance or aid to and cooperation with Israel, in all fields,” but that resolution was vetoed by the United States.¹⁹

In keeping with the international community, past presidential administrations declined to recognize the Golan Heights as part of Israel and at times signaled resistance to Israeli efforts to assert sovereignty over the territory. In 1981, for example, following Israel's passage of the legislation mentioned above, the Reagan administration suspended an agreement with Israel providing for greater military cooperation between the two countries.²⁰ More recently, the Obama administration turned down an Israeli request to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in 2015,²¹ and it reiterated the view that the Golan Heights was occupied territory following remarks by Netanyahu that Israel would never cede control of the Golan Heights.²²

While recognizing the Golan Heights to be part of Israel, the Trump administration has asserted that its decision should not be taken as a precedent justifying the acquisition of territory through conquest more generally. When asked about this issue at a press briefing on March 26, Secretary of State Pompeo responded, “This is an incredibly unique situation. Israel was fighting a defensive battle to save its nation, and it cannot be the case that a UN resolution is a suicide pact. It simply can't be, and that's the reality that President Trump recognized in his executive order yesterday.”²³ In an appearance several weeks later before a Senate appropriations subcommittee, Pompeo and Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois engaged in the following dialogue:

Durbin: Draw a historic parallel for me between the decision to say to Israel that they could claim sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a territory that was seized during the 1967 war from Syria, and the Russian claims that they can claim Crimea, because they happened to invade it as well.

Pompeo: Senator, the two situations could not be more starkly different . . . . The Golan Heights was—the Israelis ended up with the Golan Heights as the result of having been attacked. . . . They were at risk of their very nation being overrun … and they defended themselves, and they retained that terrain to continue to defend themselves from the murderous regimes in Syria. Russia, on the other hand, wasn't on the defensive. Russia chose at their own moment in time to go seize land from a people that posed no threat to them whatsoever.

Durbin: So our diplomatic position is that land seized in the course of a war is then the spoils for those who happen to occupy it?

Pompeo: I'll say two things about that. So there's international law doctrine on this very point. We don't have time to begin to go through it today. But [I'm] happy to have a team go over and walk you through that element of international law. But the second thing—it's just a practical policy matter. If it's the case that there is absolutely no cost for aggression. That is—if you attack, and you have some of your land taken as a result of an attack that you undertook and you get it back just cause you didn't succeed. . . . That's a bad incentive system to set up.²⁴

In the immediate aftermath of Pompeo's testimony, the State Department did not provide a public explanation regarding how the U.S. recognition of the Golan Heights as part of Israel was consistent with international law.²⁵ On May 14, 2019, Pompeo and Friedman co-authored an editorial arguing that “President Trump's Golan proclamation is entirely consistent with Resolution 242.”²⁶ They interpreted Resolution 242 as “provid[ing] that Israel would withdraw from some—but not necessarily all—territory captured in 1967.”²⁷ In their view, U.S. recognition of the Golan Heights as part of Israel “afforded Israel the only secure and recognized boundary that can exist” in light of the appalling behavior of the Syrian government over the years—and thereby furthered “the objective of Resolution 242.”²⁸

The U.S. decision to recognize the Golan Heights as part of Israel generated considerable international resistance. Following Trump's announcement over Twitter, Syria sent a letter to the UN Security Council asking it to “take practical measures to ensure that the council is fulfilling … its mandate in the implementation of its [Golan Heights] resolutions . . . .”²⁹ The European Union issued a statement saying that its position on the status of the Golan Heights had “not changed” and that it “does not recognise Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights.”³⁰ In a special meeting of the Security Council convened to address the issue, Belgium, China, the Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, France, Germany, Indonesia, Kuwait, Poland, Russia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom criticized the U.S. decision, reiterated the view that the Golan Heights is occupied territory, or did both.³¹ The representative of South Africa described the U.S. recognition as “a unilateral action that is a blatant violation of international law and numerous relevant Security Council resolutions.”³² In his remarks, the U.S. delegate emphasized that the decision was “of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel,” highlighted the security concerns that would arise for Israel were Syria to control the Golan Heights, and expressed strong support for the ongoing UN peacekeeping mission.³³

The decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights follows other actions by the Trump administration that reflect a distinctively close alignment with the Israeli government. These include the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel;³⁴ the closure of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington, D.C;³⁵ and sharp curtailments of U.S. funding to Palestinian-related aid.³⁶ With Netanyahu's apparent reelection to a fifth consecutive term as prime minister and subsequent failure to form a government,³⁷ the prospects of renewed peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians remain uncertain. Several days before the election in April of 2019, Netanyahu promised to annex “some or all” of the West Bank if he was reelected.³⁸ When pressed by the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on how the United States would respond to such a move, Pompeo repeatedly avoided giving a direct answer.³⁹