{"slug":"golan-heights-recognition-2019","title":"Recognising Israel's Annexation of the Golan Heights (2019)","date":"2019-03-25","lastUpdated":"2026-10-04","description":"By Proclamation 9852 of March 25, 2019, President Trump declared that 'the United States recognizes that the Golan Heights are part of the State of Israel.' Israel captured the territory from Syria in 1967 and annexed it in 1981. UN Security Council resolution 497, adopted unanimously that year with US support, declared the annexation 'null and void and without international legal effect.' The UN Secretary-General said the Golan's status 'has not changed,' and the Arab League condemned the move. Trump signed the proclamation during a White House visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, two weeks before a closely contested Israeli election.","summary":"Trump reversed decades of US policy by recognising Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights. That set aside a Security Council resolution the US itself had supported and departed from the customary rule against recognising territory acquired by force. No identifiable victims of concrete harm are documented.","category":"foreign-policy","severity":"significant","ongoing":true,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2019-03-28/pdf/2019-06199.pdf","title":"Proclamation 9852 of March 25, 2019: Recognizing the Golan Heights as Part of the State of Israel (84 Fed. Reg. 11875)","publisher":"Federal Register / U.S. Government Publishing Office"},{"url":"https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/3/25/trump-formally-recognises-israeli-sovereignty-over-golan-heights","title":"Trump formally recognises Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights","publisher":"Al Jazeera"},{"url":"https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/25/three-years-on-us-still-views-syrias-golan-as-israeli-territory","title":"Three years on, US still views Syria's Golan as Israeli territory","publisher":"Al Jazeera"},{"url":"https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-47657843","title":"Trump: Time to recognise Golan Heights as Israeli territory","publisher":"BBC News"},{"url":"https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-with-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-israel-signing-proclamation-recognizing-the","title":"Remarks With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Signing a Proclamation Recognizing the Golan Heights as Part of the State of Israel","publisher":"The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara"},{"url":"https://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/draft_articles/9_6_2001.pdf","title":"Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (2001), Article 41","publisher":"International Law Commission / UN Office of Legal Affairs"},{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_recognition_of_the_Golan_Heights_as_part_of_Israel","title":"United States recognition of the Golan Heights as part of Israel","publisher":"Wikipedia"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["Golan Heights","Israel","Syria","annexation","non-recognition","UN Security Council","first term"],"relatedEntries":["greenland-panama-sovereignty-threats"],"timeline":[{"date":"2019-03-21","title":"Trump announces the shift on Twitter","summary":"Trump tweets that it is time for the US to 'fully recognize' Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, overturning decades of US policy (BBC)."},{"date":"2019-03-25","title":"Proclamation signed with Netanyahu at the White House","summary":"Trump signs Proclamation 9852 alongside Benjamin Netanyahu. The UN Secretary-General's spokesman says the status of the Golan 'has not changed'; the Arab League condemns the decision (Al Jazeera)."},{"date":"2019-03-28","title":"Proclamation published in the Federal Register","summary":"Proclamation 9852, 'Recognizing the Golan Heights as Part of the State of Israel', is published at 84 Fed. Reg. 11875."}],"location":{"name":"Golan Heights","lat":33,"lng":35.75},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"executive-action","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"Charter of the United Nations","article":"Article 2(4)","provision":"Prohibition on the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity of any state, from which follows the inadmissibility of acquiring territory by force"},{"statute":"UN Security Council resolution 497 (1981)","provision":"Declares Israel's decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights 'null and void and without international legal effect'"},{"statute":"Customary international law (reflected in Article 41(2) of the ILC Articles on State Responsibility)","provision":"No state shall recognise as lawful a situation created by a serious breach of a peremptory norm, including territory acquired by force"}],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"No individual victims of concrete harm are documented. The interests affected are Syria's territorial sovereignty and the international legal order's rule against acquiring territory by force.","perpetrators":"President Donald Trump","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"Signed Proclamation 9852","institution":"White House"}],"keyPoints":["Proclamation 9852 (signed March 25, 2019; published March 28, 2019): 'the United States recognizes that the Golan Heights are part of the State of Israel.' It cited threats from Iran and Hizballah in southern Syria.","Israel took the Golan from Syria in the 1967 war and annexed it in 1981, a move not recognised internationally (BBC).","Security Council resolution 497 (1981), adopted unanimously, declared the annexation 'null and void and without international legal effect' (Al Jazeera).","UN Secretary-General António Guterres was 'clear that the status of Golan has not changed', his spokesman said. The Arab League said the recognition 'does not change the area's status' (Al Jazeera).","Former senior State Department official Richard Haass said recognition would violate a Security Council resolution 'which rules out acquiring territory by war' (BBC).","The move 'appeared to give Netanyahu a boost before the closely contested April 9 Israeli elections' (Al Jazeera). At the signing, Netanyahu said Israel 'won the Golan Heights in a just war of self-defense'."],"legalBasis":"UN Charter Article 2(4); UN Security Council resolution 497 (1981); customary duty of non-recognition of territorial acquisitions by force","postureNote":"An executive proclamation, in force. No court challenge or Security Council action on it was found in this review. The Biden administration did not reverse it: in 2021 the State Department said 'US policy regarding the Golan has not changed' (Al Jazeera, March 2022). Its status after March 2022 was not re-verified in this review.","relatedIncidents":["greenland-panama-sovereignty-threats"]}}