Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights in the context of "Israeli occupation"

Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights of Syria since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, control of the Palestinian territories was split between Egypt and Jordan, which administered the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, respectively. The Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, where Israel has transferred parts of its population and built large settlements, is the longest military occupation in modern history.

From 1967 to 1981, the four areas were administered under the Israeli Military Governorate, and after the return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt after the Egypt–Israel peace treaty, Israel effectively annexed the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem in 1980, and brought the rest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under the Israeli Civil Administration.

The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, 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. It hosts vital water sources that feed the Hasbani River and the Jordan River. Two thirds of the area was depopulated and occupied by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War and then effectively annexed in 1981. The international community largely considers the area Israeli-occupied Syrian territory. The United States recognized it as part of Israel in 2019 during the first Trump administration. In 2024, Israel occupied parts of the remaining one third of the area.

The earliest evidence of human habitation on the Golan dates to the Upper Paleolithic period. It was home to the biblical Geshur, and was later incorporated into Aram-Damascus, before being ruled by several foreign and domestic powers, including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Itureans, Hasmoneans, Romans, Ghassanids, several caliphates, and the Mamluk Sultanate. It was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century until its collapse, and subsequently became part of the French Mandate in Syria and the State of Damascus in 1923. When the mandate terminated in 1946, it became part of the newly independent Syrian Arab Republic, spanning about 1,800 km (690 sq mi).

Mount Hermon (/ˈhɜːrmən/ HUR-mən) is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Its summit straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon and, at 2,814 m (9,232 ft) above sea level, is the highest point in Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

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 2,814 metres (9,232 ft). The southern slopes of Mount Hermon extend to the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights, where the Mount Hermon ski resort is located with a top elevation of 2,040 metres (6,690 ft).

The Ruqqad is a wadi flowing in south-west Syria. It flows into the Yarmouk River, of which it is one of the main tributaries, and forms the topographical eastern boundary of the Golan Heights. It marks the south-west part of the ceasefire line between the Israel-occupied part of the Golan Heights and the Syrian-held part of the region. The Syrian controlled side was occupied by Israel in the 2024 Israeli invasion of Syria.

The Battle of Yarmuk between the Byzantines and Muslims in 636 took place in an area bordered by Wadi ar-Raqqad, close to its junction with the Yarmuk River.

Following the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024, Israel invaded the buffer zone in southwestern Syria (adjacent to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights) and has continued to occupy it. Israel also carried out an aerial bombing campaign to cripple the new Syrian Armed Forces, and demanded that it stay out of southern Syria. Israel's government claimed this was to thwart any "potential threat" from post-war Syria.

Israel took advantage of the power vacuum created by the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to increase the amount of territory it controlled by several hundred square miles. Israel declared the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement with Ba'athist Syria to be void. Israel initially said this new invasion would be "temporary", but later said it would hold onto the territory for an "unlimited time". Israel also launched extensive aerial and naval strikes on Syrian military targets across the country, under an operation codenamed Operation Arrow of Bashan (Hebrew: מבצע חץ הבשן, romanized: Mivtza Ḥetz HaBashan). Israel's campaign crippled Syria's military capabilities, including its army and its navy, and destroyed its chemical weapons stockpiles.

The legitimacy of the State of Israel has been challenged since before the state was formed. There has been opposition to Zionism, the movement to establish a Jewish state in Palestine, since its emergence in 19th-century Europe. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, a number of individuals, organizations, and states have challenged Israel's political legitimacy and its occupation of territories belonging to Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. Over the course of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and broader Arab–Israeli conflict, the country's authority has also been questioned on a number of fronts.

Criticism of Israel may include opposition to the country's right to exist or, since the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, the established power structure within the Israeli-occupied territories. Israel has also been accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes—such as apartheid, starvation and genocide—including by scholars, legal experts, and human rights organizations. Israel regards such criticism as attempts to delegitimize it. Israel has also been criticized for maintaining "the longest and one of the most deadly military occupations in the world".