After Palestine and Lebanon, Israel extends its violations of international law to Syria

Israel’s occupation and air strikes in Syria in the wake of the fall of the Assad regime violate international law and are part of a broader pattern of ongoing violations in Palestine and Lebanon, according to a scholar of Middle East history. Assal Rad told Anadolu that Israel’s recent operations in Syria reflect its decades-long contemptuous approach to international law, pointing to parallels with its policies in Palestinian territories.

“What we’ve seen Israel do is immediately exploit the fact that Syria is going through this upheaval, a moment of transition and rupture, which creates some instability,” explained Rad. “It’s a time where Syrians themselves are trying to assess the situation, make sure that the nation state itself doesn’t collapse, that all of the procedures of the state continue.” She argued that Israel’s policies in the Golan Heights mirror its occupation of Palestinian land.

“You have to understand it within that context because the mentality of the Israeli nation-state is that it can freely occupy these territories that are clearly designated under international law as territories — whether it’s the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem — that belong to the Palestinian people, or the Golan Heights, which has also been occupied for decades, which belong to Syria.”

Israel continues its occupation of these areas, she added, without facing international accountability. “Israel has continued to carry out this decades-long occupation of all of these territories because essentially it faces no consequences in terms of international law or consequences because of its patronage by the United States, which makes sure that there is no accountability for Israel’s actions.”

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Rad criticised Israel’s justification for its actions in Syria, calling it legally baseless. “It’s interesting if you listen to what Israeli officials are saying. They’re arguing that they need a “sterile” buffer zone for the existing buffer zone, because the Golan Heights is in fact Syrian territory itself. It’s the same language and pattern of conquest that’s been going on for decades.”

The settler-colonial state occupied most of the Golan Heights during the 1967 Middle East war and, in a move never recognised by the international community, later annexed the territory. In 1974, a disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria established a buffer zone and demilitarised area.

The scholar decried the policies of Israel’s current government, calling it “the most right-wing nationalist government in an already ethnonationalist state.” She cited comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Cabinet ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who have openly discussed annexing the West Bank.

“This is something that, within the Israeli state, you actually have commentators, officials within the state, leaders of what they call settler movements, who are talking about the fact that they will settle all of these lands, including land in Syria, not to mention the public sort of discourse that you see within Israeli society,” said Rad.

She stressed the importance of respecting international law and rejected attempts to reinterpret it for political gain. “The ideas of sovereignty and territorial integrity are the basic components of international law. And that is not something that Israel or the United States for that matter can rewrite because they are not based on the will or the interpretations of individual nation states, but the consensus of an international community. Syria’s sovereignty, like that of Lebanon and every other country in the region, as well as, by the way, the occupied Palestinian territories, which are recognised internationally as belonging to the Palestinian people. All of that is enshrined in international law.”

Israel’s moves in Syria come in the wake of the ouster of Bashar Al-Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fleeing to Russia after anti-regime groups took control of Damascus on Sunday, ending the Baath Party’s rule since 1963.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.