Syrian towns and villages depopulated in the Arab–Israeli conflict
Map of location of Syrian localities whose residents have been displaced since 1967 overlaid on top of the modern demographic map of the area
Before the Six-Day War and Yom Kippur War, the Golan Heights comprised 312 inhabited areas, including 2 towns, 163 villages, and 108 farms.[1] In 1966, the Syrian population of the Golan Heights was estimated at 147,613.[2]Israel seized about 70% of the Golan Heights in the closing stages of the Six-Day War.[3] Many of these residents fled during the fighting,[4] or were driven out by the Israeli army,[5][6] and some were evacuated by the Syrian army.[5] The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs in 1992 characterized Israel's actions as "ethnic cleansing".[7]
Israel forcibly expelled Syrians from the Golan Heights.[8][9] There were also instances of Israeli soldiers killing Syrian residents including blowing up their home with people inside.[10]
A cease-fire line was established and large parts of the region came under Israeli military control, including the town of Quneitra, about 139 villages and 61 farms.[1] Of these, the Census of Population 1967 conducted by the Israeli Defence Forces listed only eight, including Quneitra.[1] One of the remaining populated villages, Shayta, was partially destroyed in 1967 and a military post built in its place.[11] Between 1971–72 it was eradicated, with the remaining population forcibly transferred to Mas'ade, another of the populated villages under Israeli control.[11][12] Focaal reports that "95% of the Syrian indigenous population was forcibly displaced and only five villages, out of 340 villages and farms, remained."[13]
The Israeli Head of Surveying and Demolition Supervision for the Golan Heights proposed the demolition of 127 unpopulated villages, with about 90 abandoned villages to be demolished shortly after May 15, 1968.[14][15] The demolitions were carried out by contractors hired for the job.[6][15][16][17][18][19] After the demolitions, the lands were given to Israeli settlers.[20] There was an effort to preserve buildings of archaeological significance and buildings useful for the planned Jewish settlements.[15]
After the 1973 Yom Kippur War, parts of the occupied Golan Heights were returned to Syrian control, including Quneitra, which had changed hands several times during the war. According to a United Nations Special Committee, Israeli forces had deliberately destroyed the city before their 1974 withdrawal.[21]
Forced transfer and displacement. Syrian civilians, hands raised, before Israeli soldiers, leave their homes in the Golan Heights
Depopulated villages
Alphabetical list; all parts of the name are treated equally, including the article (al-, as-, etc.), but the diacritics are disregarded (for example ‘A is treated like a plain A).
Caution: some names appear twice in different orthographic variations, originating from different sources.
Alphabetical list; all parts of the name are treated equally, including the article (al-, as-, etc.), but the diacritics are disregarded (for example ‘A is treated like a plain A).
^Fogelman, Shay (2010-07-30). "The Disinherited". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
^Sulimani & Kletter 2022, p. 55-56: "Avishay Katz, the commander of reserve Engineer Regiment 602,testified:
At this stage [during the war] the instruction that we have received was to
go and check that no ‘guys’ are left hiding. We did it in the first villages
[conquered] on top of the [Golan] Heights . . . . There were a few cases that
I don’t want to talk about.’
What does it mean? Katz: ‘They killed people that should not have
been killed. Syrian citizens’ . . . There were a few guys of mine who killed
some Arab citizens’ . . .
Why did they kill them? ‘It was out of stupidity, something that should
not have been done, and they were kicked out of the regiment. All the rest
of the Golan dwellers were deported. Not one remained’.
How did it happen? ‘They destroyed a house on top of its dwellers . . .
It was a war crime. . . . It drove me out of my mind’"
^ abMurphy, Ray; Gannon, Declan (2008). "Changing the Landscape: Israel's Gross Violations of International Law in the Occupied Syrian Golan". Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law. 11. Cambridge University Press: 147.
^Sakr Abu Fakhr, "Voices from the Golan", Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Autumn, 2000), University of California Press, p. 7.
^ abc"The Fate of Abandoned Arab Villages, 1965–1969" by Aron Shai, History & Memory Volume 18, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2006, pp. 86–106. "As the pace of the surveys increased in the West Bank, widespread operations also began on the Golan Heights, which had been captured from Syria during the war (figure 7). Dan Urman, whose official title was Head of Surveying and Demolition Supervision for the Golan Heights, was responsible for this task. Urman submitted a list of 127 villages for demolition to his bosses. … The demolitions were executed by contractors hired for the job. Financial arrangements and coordination with the ILA and the army were recorded in detail. Davidson commissioned surveys and demolition supervision from the IASS [Israel Archaeological Survey Society]. Thus, for example, in a letter dated 15 May 1968, he wrote to Ze'ev Yavin: 'Further to our meeting, this is to inform you that within a few days, we will start demolishing about 90 abandoned villages on the Golan Heights (see attached list)."
^"The Golan Heights under Israeli Occupation 1967–1981" p.5. "The remainder of 131 agricultural villages and 61 individual farms were wiped off the face of the earth by the Israeli occupation authorities immediately following the Israeli victory in the 1967 war. They were razed to the ground and their lands handed over to exclusive Israeli-Jewish settlement."
Sulimani, Gideon; Kletter, Raz (2022). "Settler-Colonialism and the Diary of an Israeli Settler in the Golan Heights: The Notebooks of Izhaki Gal". Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies. 21 (1). Edinburgh University Press. doi:10.3366/hlps.2022.0283. ISSN2054-1988.
Southern Lebanon Border Area 1986 – Map from the University of Texas at Austin general libraries map collection, showing Syrian villages in the Golan Heights from pre-1967 sources.
