ABSTRACT
In June 1967, Israel responded to Syrian ground and artillery attacks on its military posts and civilian settlements by forcibly capturing the Golan Heights – the plateau from which the Syrians had for years harassed Israeli settlements in the valleys below. In December 1981, the Menachem Begin government passed a law in the Knesset extending Israeli law to the Golan Heights. This law reflected a substantial Israeli consensus on keeping the Golan, primarily for security reasons, though history also played a role. By 1995, the thirty-three Golan settlements were inhabited by some 15,000 people.
