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Sykes-Picot and the Golan

(Israel Hayom) Zalman Shoval - Mark Sykes, the British negotiator of the Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 16, 1916, which shaped the borders of our region a century ago, was a Christian Zionist who viewed the establishment of a Jewish entity in the Jewish people's ancient homeland as a historic, moral and religious directive. The Sykes-Picot Agreement had a considerable influence on the formulation of the Balfour Declaration issued in 1917. At the end of World War I, the Zionist movement claimed the area where the sources of the Jordan River are located. Originally, the Upper Galilee region was supposed to fall under French control, but in 1924 the territory of the British Mandate for Palestine was expanded northward, largely due to the establishment of the Jewish settlements of Metulla, Tel Hai and Kfar Giladi. However, the sources of the Jordan River, Mount Hermon, most of the Golan Heights (up to 10 meters from the Sea of Galilee shoreline) and the Banias River remained under French control (and later became part of Syria). This situation lasted until the Six-Day War in 1967, when the status of the Golan Heights was restored to what it was supposed to have been according to the original agreement. The writer is a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S.
2016-04-27 00:00:00
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