US President Donald Trump has advocated that the United States recognize the sovereignty of Israel since 1967, the occupied Golan heights. After 52 years, it was for the United States at the time, wrote Trump on Thursday on Twitter ahead of a planned visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week in Washington. Israel had annexed the Golan heights in 1981, which has not been recognized internationally but. Under international law, territories are considered Israeli-occupied territory of Syria.
The Golan heights are a strategically important rocky plateau above the lake of Galilee with the city of Tiberias, and densely populated areas in the North of Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying again and again to a recognition of the Golan heights as Israeli. “The Golan is part of Israel, the Golan must remain part of Israel,” he said recently.
recently, the US state Department had changed its word choice to the Status of the Golan heights. In a report on the human rights situation in Israel, the Ministry referred to the territories as “Israeli-controlled”. In the past year, both the Golan heights, as well as the also in 1967 conquered territories of the West Bank and the Gaza strip had been referred to as Israel’s “occupied”.
US Secretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Thursday during a visit to Jerusalem, the new wording in the report was not a mistake. She was very deliberately chosen.
Trump receives Netanyahu in the coming week in the White house. Trumps policy in the middle East receives in the right-wing conservative government in Israel, a lot of applause. Netanyahu praises about the decision of the relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as well as the withdrawal of the USA from the nuclear deal with Iran.
More about
Israel and Hamas are Not interested in a serious escalation
Lissy Kaufmann
Netanyahu is the annual conference of the American-Israeli lobby organization Aipac in Washington, where he will hold a speech. In the White house, the two men want to discuss “common interests and actions of both countries in the Middle East”. In Israel, on 9. April, a new Parliament is elected. (dpa)