The United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday denounced the Israeli presence in the Golan Heights and created the post of a special investigator into human rights issues in Iran.
The resolution on the “Syrian Golan,” which calls for an immediate cessation of any “settlement” construction in the Golan, is the first of six resolutions on Israel. The UNHRC is expected to approve the remaining five resolutions when it wraps up its 16th session on Friday.
Thursday’s vote on the Golan Heights was 29 in favor, with 16 abstentions. Only the US voted against the resolution; those abstaining included the United Kingdom, Hungary and France.
The resolution calls on Israel to comply with Security Council Resolution 497 from 1981, which stated that Israel’s decision “to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan is null and void and without international legal effect, and demanded that Israel rescind forthwith its decision.”
The resolution deems the Knesset’s November 2010 decision to hold a referendum on the Golan a violation of international law, and considers it null and void.
In addition, it insists that Israel “desist from its continuous building of settlements,” as well as from “changing the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure and legal status of the occupied Syrian Golan, and emphasizes that the displaced persons of the population of the occupied Syrian Golan must be allowed to return to their homes and to recover their property.”
The resolution further states that Israel should allow Syrians in the Golan free transit into Syria through Quneitra under Red Cross supervision, and should allow the Red Cross to “visit Syrian prisoners of conscience and detainees in Israeli prisons,” though it also calls for Israel to release all Syrian detainees in Israeli prisons.
When Syria was in control of the Golan Heights, Syria could shell Israel with impunity, slaughtering innocent civilians on purpose, forcing them to live in bomb shelters every single day. Israel captured the Golan Heights in the Six Day War of 1967 and many of the residents fled. Israel was forced to occupy and annex the Golan Heights to prevent further attacks on Israel.
Giving the Golan Heights back to Syria would end Israel's ability to defend the North, which is precisely what the UNHRC wants. As far as these people are concerned, Jews have no right to self defense.
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