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Murphy, Ray --- "Forgotten Rights: Consequences of the Israeli Occupation of the Golan Heights" [2012] ELECD 791; in Keane, David; McDermott, Yvonne (eds), "The Challenge of Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: The Challenge of Human Rights

Editor(s): Keane, David; McDermott, Yvonne

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857939005

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Forgotten Rights: Consequences of the Israeli Occupation of the Golan Heights

Author(s): Murphy, Ray

Number of pages: 26

Extract:

7. Forgotten rights: Consequences of
the Israeli occupation of the Golan
Heights
Ray Murphy*

The area known as the Golan Heights is a mountainous region and plateau
in southwest Syria. The overall landmass of the Golan Heights is 1860
square kilometres, which is approximately one per cent of the total land-
mass of Syria.1 Reference to `the Golan Heights' has typically described the
portion of the Syrian Golan that has been occupied by Israel since 1967.2
Successive Israeli governments have adopted a number of policies to
control and contain the Syrian population since Israel began its occupa-
tion. Numerous villages have been destroyed, thousands driven from their
homes, private and public property expropriated, the remaining Arab
villages have been prevented from expanding and the free movement of
people curtailed. In 1981, Israel enacted legislation that purported to
annex the territory.3 This move was widely condemned.4
This chapter outlines the background to the occupation and the con-
sequences for the local population. It examines the action of the Israeli
authorities and argues that certain practices by the Israeli Defence Forces
constitute war crimes, which in some cases, may amount to grave breaches
of the Fourth Geneva Convention governing the protection of civilians.


* Based on Ray Murphy and Declan Gannon, `Changing the Landscape:

Israel's Gross Violations of International Law in the Occupied Syrian Golan'
(2008) 11 Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, 139­74, and a report by
Al-Marsad (2008).
1 Permanent Mission of the Syrian Arab ...