Ukraine stays committed to United Nations resolutions urging Israel to withdraw from the occupied and annexed Golan Heights, according to a statement by Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released late on March 26.
The diplomatic statement came in response to the March 25 decision by U.S. President Donald J. Trump to officially recognize Israeli sovereignty over the disputed territory seized from Syria during the Six-Day War of 1967 and later effectively annexed in 1981.
Sought by the Israelis for decades following the capture, the recognition split U.S. allies and partners around the world, with the European Union also opting to keep considering the heights as illegally occupied by Israel.
Trump’s decision was also criticized by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, calling it “threatening crisis and increasing tensions in the region.”
Ukraine’s foreign policy department in its decision referred to UN Security Council resolutions No. 242 approved in 1967, No. 465 dated 1980, and No. 497 of 1981, all calling on Israel to withdraw its troops, to ensure security for the civilian population, and to refrain from imposing its legislation and allowing Israeli settlement in the disputed zone.
“Out nation continues to consistently advocate bringing about a universal peaceful settlement in the Middle East and keeping account of Israel’s legitimate security interests,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Kateryna Zalenko said.
At the same time, Ukrainian diplomats voiced concerns over tensions at the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas. On March 25, against the backdrop of Trump’s official recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and during a visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, Hamas forces fired a missile into Israeli territory, destroying a residential house near the city of Tel Aviv and injuring seven civilians.
In response to the attack, the Israel Defense Forces carried out an artillery strike on Hamas military targets in the Gaza Strip the same day.
“We consider the acts of terror committed by Hamas and targeting Israel, namely the missile attacks, posing a deadly threat to the civilian population, as absolutely unacceptable.”
Ukraine called upon both Israel and Palestine to demonstrate restraint and avoid another armed conflict.
At the same time, Trump’s decision posed a challenge to the U.S. policy of non-recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, which the Kremlin seized from Ukraine in early 2014.
However, U.S. Secretary of State Mark Pompeo on March 23 rebuffed the allegations of waging double-standards policy regarding the sensitive issue, claiming that Trump’s decision recognized “the reality on the ground and the security situation necessary for the protection of the Israeli state.”
Later, however, Russia’s top Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that following Pompeo’s logic, the United States should have “automatically” recognized Russian sovereignty over Crimea as well.
The Golan Heights, a land strip of 1,800 square kilometers at Syrian southwestern edge bordering Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan, was intensively used by the Syrian army for striking Israeli settlements from the region’s dominating mountainous terrain ever since the proclamation of Israel’s independence in 1948 and the subsequent war against an invading Arab coalition seeking to annihilate the newly-created Jewish state in the Middle East.
During the Six-Day War of 1967, the Israeli army, however, managed to inflict a devastating defeat on the Arab forces and capture the strategically crucial Golan Heights from Syria, along with seizing the West Bank and whole of Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.
The Golan Heights again became the scene of extremely fierce fighting between Syrian and Israeli forces during the Yom Kippur War of 1973: the Israelis managed to defeat the Syrians, although there were heavy casualties on both sides, and even advanced far enough into Syria to be able to shell Damascus.
Following the war, the United Nations imposed in 1974 a demilitarized zone between the Israeli-occupied heights and the rest of Syria, with an international peacekeeping force deployed to secure factual peace.
In 1981, Israel issued a bill on proclaiming its sovereignty over the part of the heights it controlled, although it was never recognized by the United Nations.
For decades after the seizure, Israel has been actively building new Jewish settlements for civilians and developing the economy of the disputed area, making it one of its most prosperous regions.
