Israel plans to expand Golan settlements after fall of Assad

[nmmi]

11. Here's a map of the Golan Heights and the buffer zone

Last edited Sun Dec 15, 2024, 10:21 PM - Edit history (1)

The link of the image is: https://embassies.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/Maps/Maps/Golan-Heights dot jpg

Odd that something from embassies.gov.il has a disclaimer in the bottom left corner that

    "This map is for illustrative purposes only and should not be considered authoritative"

The mileage/km lines at the lower left are very interesting - this is quite a small area.

The buffer zone is the thin gray-white striped strip that contains Quneitra as one of its cities. In area it is about the same size as the Gaza Strip.

I believe the big blue area is the Golan Heights that Israel occupied in the 6-day war and annexed in 1981. (There might have been some adjustments after the 1973 war).

Somebody in another thread thought the blue area was water, but no, I'm sure enough of the area's geography about that, anyway the blue area has rivers and towns in it. The Sea of Galilee on the map is real water.

The greenish gray area to the west is Israel from 1948 or whenever until June 1967, and is the internationally-recognized Israel.

The map, or I, could be wrong -- for example, I read that Mount Hermon was beyond the buffer zone. But on this map, it's in the blue area, at the very top of it, inside Israel-annexed Golan ...

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From the Times of israel article link in #9 above
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/fearing-islamist-rebels-syrian-druze-village-calls-to-be-annexed-to-israel-calling-it-the-lesser-evil/

. . . “We asked to be annexed to the Golan to preserve our dignity,” he says, adding that he speaks for the Druze community across the surrounding area of the Quneitra Governorate.

... Hader, and the villages surrounding it, are located within the buffer zone between Israel and Syria which IDF troops entered on Sunday following the fall of Assad. The majority of Druze do not reside in the Syrian Golan.

According to the last reliable census, taken in 2010 before the outbreak of the civil war, around 48% of Syria’s Druze resided in the Suwayda Governorate, some 90 kilometers from the border with Israel. Another 35% were living in Damascus, and 25,000 were located in the Idlib Governate.

I don't see Hader on the map, unless Hamat-Gader, at the very bottom of the blue area, is it.