Germany, Turkey criticize Israel’s plan to step up its Golan Heights population
Berlin says ‘perfectly clear’ area belongs to Syria; Ankara says attempt to expand borders ‘through occupation’ is a ‘grave concern’

Germany on Monday urged Israel to abandon a plan to double the Israeli population living in the Golan Heights at the southwestern edge of Syria, while Turkey called it “a source of grave concern.”
The plan has already been criticized by some Middle Eastern nations, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said “it is perfectly clear under international law that this area controlled by Israel belongs to Syria and that Israel is therefore an occupying power.”
The spokesman, Christian Wagner, added that Berlin therefore called on its ally “to abandon this plan,” announced Sunday by the Israeli government.
Israel conquered the territory from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War — fought against several Arab countries that were planning an invasion — and annexed it in 1981. Most of the world does not recognize the move, though the US granted its recognition in 2019.
As Islamist-led rebel forces swept Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered troops to seize a demilitarized buffer zone on the Golan Heights that was established under the 1974 Disengagement Agreement that ended the Yom Kippur War.
The Israeli population expansion plan is only aimed at the area already annexed and not the buffer zone that was entered last week.

Israel has also launched hundreds of strikes on Syria, targeting strategic military sites and weapons, including chemical weapons, in a bid to prevent them from falling into the hands of hostile elements who could use them against the Jewish state or hand them to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Wagner, the German spokesperson, said that “it is absolutely crucial now, in this phase of political upheaval in Syria, that all actors in the region take into account the territorial integrity of Syria and do not call it into question.”
Speaking at a regular press conference, he added that the situation is “complex” and acknowledged that Israel had an interest to ensure that the Assad regime’s weapons “do not fall into the wrong hands.”
But he stressed that Germany was “now calling on all actors in the region to exercise restraint” and that war-ravaged “Syria has been a plaything of foreign powers for far too long.”
Turkey also denounced the Israeli plan.
“This decision is a new stage in Israel’s goal of expanding its borders through occupation,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement condemning the move.
“This step by Israel is a source of grave concern, taken together with Israel’s entry into the area of separation in violation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement, its advance into adjacent areas and airstrikes in Syria,” it said, warning the move would “seriously undermine” efforts to bring stability to Syria after Assad’s ouster.

Around 50,000 people live on the Israeli-controlled side of the Heights, evenly split between Jews and Druze.
The NIS 40 million ($11 million) approved for the plan will go toward education, renewable energy, the establishment of a student village, and a plan for absorbing new residents, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a Sunday statement.
Saudi Arabia slammed the new plan Sunday as “sabotage” against Syria while Qatar called it a “new episode in a series of Israeli aggressions on Syrian territories and a blatant violation of international law.”
The UAE claimed the effort “threatens further escalation and tensions in the region.”