Netanyahu Asks the U.S. to Recognize Israeli Sovereignty Over the Golan Heights

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again called on the United States and other countries around the world to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights. On January 6, Netanyahu announced that weather permitting, he and U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton, who is visiting Turkey and Israel, would go to the Golan on January 7. Netanyahu stated, "When you are there, you will understand exactly why we will never leave the Golan; and why all countries must recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights." The Golan Heights, a region that was under Syrian control until 1967, was annexed by Israel during the Six-Day War of that year. The international community has not recognized the annexation of the Golan to Israeli territory. However, Israel has built dozens of cities and industrial and agricultural settlements in the area over the past decades, housing tens of thousands of Israelis. In November of this year, for the first time in 51 years of occupation of the Golan Heights, the United States voted against a resolution calling for Israel's withdrawal from the area. Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, stated at that time that "the U.S. will no longer abstain in the annual vote against Israel's control over the Golan" and added that "such a meaningless proposal is biased against Israel, and the destruction that Bashar al-Assad's regime has left everywhere in Syria proves that Damascus is not capable of sovereignty." In this year's resolution of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, apart from the U.S. and Israel, which voted against it, 151 countries called for an end to the occupation of the Golan, and 14 countries abstained. However, this resolution does not have any significant impact on the current situation. This is not the first time that Netanyahu has expressed his desire for the recognition of sovereignty over the Golan. During John Bolton's summer visit to Israel, the Prime Minister stated that he still hopes the U.S. will recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights. However, Donald Trump's National Security Advisor had stated in response to a question about the likelihood of this that U.S. policy has not changed and this matter is not on Washington's agenda.