Author Description

Presenting the settlement landscape of the Golan before June 1967, The Golan Heights deals with the issue of the border between Israel and Syria from 1948-1967, and with the Israeli settlement process in the area following the Six Day War. The story of the Golan Heights and its position between Syria and Israel does not belong only to the past; it is still interwoven in the political present of the two countries. Public discourse in Israel on the political future of the Golan, and the direct and indirect political discussions between Israel and Syria rest to a great extent on personal and collective memories, and these, by nature, are based on the past. The perceptions of the Israeli public, from 1949 to 1967 were constructed upon the image of a mountain which became a monster. This image reached its peak on the eve of the Six Day War in June 1967, but continued to be consolidated and preserved in the Israeli collective memory, and so it has remained until the present. Addressing the question of the political future of the Golan, a central issue for both Israel and the wider Middle East, this book will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of Political History, Settlement Geography and Geopolitics. Dr. Yigal Kipnis is a researcher at the Truman Research Institute and teaches International Relations at Haifa University. He received a BS in Civil Engineering from the Technion in Haifa and an MA and PhD in Land of Israel Studies from Haifa University. His first book, The Mountain That Was as a Monster, The Golan Between Syria and Israel, was published in 2009. His second book, 1973: The Way to War reveals the continuing political process which led to the Middle East war of October 1973 for the first time.