Syria Gains Control of Golan Heights

September 29, 1923

In border designations for states drawn up in the primarily by Britain and France after WWI, the Golan Heights were put under the control of the new state of Syria. Over the next two decades, Zionists made several concerted efforts to buy large portions of the area, but were constantly denied by the French who held sway over the Arab governments in Damascus. Syria and the French feared such land sales to Zionists would unleash a British effort to have the Heights put under their control in Palestine. Zionist-Syrian tribal negotiations for Golan Heights allowed the Zionists to maintain positive connections and relations with important Syrian Arab politicians well into the 1940s.