Following the relocation of the US embassy in Israel to Occupied Jerusalem last week an American congressman is calling on Washington to recognize Israeli sovereignty in the occupied Golan Heights.
In an interview published Sunday Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis told the Hebrew-speaking Walla news website he had brought the proposal before the Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs of which he is a member on Thursday.
Israel captured the Golan in 1967 from Syria and annexed the territory in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community— which still regards it as occupied.
DeSantis told Walla he had suggested that amendment to a chapter on Syria in the US military’s budget. Though the move would be largely symbolic he noted approval could encourage the administration to take a position on the matter.
The congressman claimed his action seemed to him a natural follow-up to the embassy’s relocation from Tel Aviv to Occupied Jerusalem last Monday.
The congressman said that just as Washington’s relocation of its embassy would help take Occupied Jerusalem off the table in peace negotiations American recognition of Israel’s sovereignty in the Golan Heights would clarify it has no intention of forcing Jerusalem to relinquish the territory.
DeSantis attended the ceremony celebrating the opening of the Jerusalem embassy last Monday. He had long been a proponent of the move and last March led a Congressional fact-finding mission to Israel on a possible relocation.
US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last December and to relocate the embassy there has been universally condemned and rejected by most world leaders including the European Union.
The move also led to widespread anger in the Arab world and to violent Palestinian protests.
A mass demonstration along the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel Monday over the US embassy ceremony led to the murder of over 60 Palestinians by Israeli gunfire.
