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Located on the Israeli-Syrian border, the Golan has been an area of conflict since 1948. During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel occupied the Syrian Golan, displacing many of the occupants to Syria. The Golan is divided into three areas: Syrian controlled, Israeli controlled, and a buffer zone monitored by the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). Each contains mined areas.[1]
There are numerous minefields in the Israeli occupied Golan, but the exact locations, numbers, and types of mines are not publicly known. Both Syrian and Israeli forces emplaced these mines. These minefields continue to be an obstacle to the use and development of the land and its resources. Many Golani people face economic hardship because their livelihood depends on growing crops and grazing cattle. Residents avoid some areas out of fear that they could contain mines. Some mines have been planted directly next to houses, schools, and streets. The Golan is a mountainous area; rain and erosion cause mines to move from their original places into other areas, sometimes residential areas. There have been numerous requests for mine clearance from civil bodies like the Agricultural Ministry, the Israeli Land Administration and the Israeli water company, Makorot.[2]
In the Golan, there are several fenced off mined areas covering several kilometers of land, and there are also fenced off minefields near schools and even backyards of some Golani residents. However, most often minefields are not marked or fenced or monitored. In many instances, there are no warnings or protections for civilians. For example, in Ein Al-Hamreh several mined areas are not fenced, and in other areas the fences have fallen down. The area between Ein Al-Hamreh and Al-Mansurah (approximately 100 million square meters) is mined, although much of it is not marked. This unmarked area is a known grazing area.[3]
In 2000, the UN Disengagement Observer Force, in cooperation with Syrian authorities, began a program to identify and mark all minefields within its area of operations. According to UNDOF, “The Minefield Security Program has led to the identification and marking of numerous known as well as previously unidentified minefields in the area of separation.”[4]
According to field work carried out by AlHaq, a Palestinian human rights group, Israel has not disclosed where all of the landmines are located in the Golan and has not properly marked or monitored known minefields. Israeli diplomats have stated that “the use of anti-personnel landmines is restricted and is carried out within the constraints set up by the Amended Protocol II of the CCW Convention.”[5]
Israel has since 1995 been a State Party to original Protocol II of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). Under that protocol, Israel has a duty to protect the civilian population from the effects of mines it has laid, including marking and monitoring known mined areas.[6] Israel ratified the CCW’s Amended Protocol II on 30 October 2000 and Amended Protocol II entered into force for Israel on 1 April 2001. Israel submitted eight declarations upon ratification including one that stated:
It is the understanding of the State of Israel...[that] provisions of the Amended Protocol II, such as those regarding marking, monitoring, and protection of areas containing mines under the control of a high contracting party, shall apply to all areas containing mines, regardless of when the mines were emplaced.[7]
Another understanding submitted by Israel deals with the obligation under Article 5, paragraph 2(b) to clear mines it has laid before abandoning an area, or to insure that another State accepts responsibility for clearance: “Israel understands that Article 5 paragraph 2(b) does not apply to the transfer of areas pursuant to peace treaties, agreements on the cessation of hostilities, or as part of a peace process or steps leading thereto.”
According to AlHaq, Israel also has a legal obligation to provide protections for civilians in the Golan from landmines emplaced by other belligerents. Al-Haq argues that the Fourth Geneva Convention, Articles 2 and 4, provides for the protection of the civilian population, individually and collectively, who find themselves in the hands of a belligerent state or occupying power of which they are not nationals “at any given moment and in any manner whatsoever” and in “all cases of partial or total occupation.”[8]
The most recent known mine incident in the Golan occurred on 6 June 2001 in the area of Ain Al-Hamra. A 73 year-old shepherd from the village of Bka’ata was killed. This was the same area where one of his sons was killed and another injured by a mine in 1977.[9]
There is not an agency or an organization in the Golan that systematically documents and records facts about landmine victims. Al-Haq has sent field workers to the area on many occasions and has relied exclusively on that data. It has collected information on sixty-six Arab Golani landmine and UXO casualties from 1967 to 1999, of whom sixteen died and fifty were injured.[10] It was not always possible to find out if the incidents involved mines or UXO. Of the fifty survivors, forty-three were under the age of eighteen. Eight of the sixteen dead were under the age of eighteen.
There are currently no governmental or local programs on mine awareness education. Research in the Arab Golani community shows that first aid for mine and UXO victims was delivered by the Israel Defense Force (IDF) in twenty-two cases and by civilians in the others, one of them being an Israeli settler.[11] If a victim lies in a minefield or an area suspected to contain more mines, IDF brings a vehicle through to the victim. Al-Haq has documented one instance in which a second mine exploded under a military vehicle trying to reach a mine victim, killing an Israeli soldier.[12]
The closest hospital to the Golan is in Safed, more than 100 kilometers from the Golani villages. In the Golan, there is only a small emergency clinic. Thus the special medical help needed for serious mine injuries is not available soon enough in the Golan to be effective. Furthermore, the Golan does not have governmental or local rehabilitation facilities for mine victims. Neither the UN nor any internationally-funded mine awareness or victim assistance programs are active in the area of Golan controlled by Israel.
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[1] See the country report on Syria for the mine situation in the areas of the Golan controlled by Syria.
[2] Israeli State Comptroller's Report No. 50 A, for the Year 1999, "Mine Laying in the Israel Defense Forces," (Published in Hebrew and translated unofficially) Israel Government Printing Office, Jerusalem; hereafter cited as "State Comptroller's Report, 1999."
[3] Documented during field visits by Al-Haq, 1999-2001. In 1999 Al-Haq had a full-time fieldworker in the Golan who visited minefields regularly. In January 2000, Al-Haq visited the Ein Al-Hamreh and Majdel Shams areas. Since August 2000, Al-Haq has made monthly visits to gather information, including a July 2001 visit to Ein Al-Hamreh.
[4] “Report of the UN Secretary General on the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, for the period from 22 November 2000 to 18 May 2001” (S/2001/499), 18 May 2001, pp. 1-2.
[5] Statement by Amnon Efrat, Minister-Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Israel, Geneva at the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 11 September 2000.
[6] See CCW Protocol II (1980), Article 4, paragraph 2(b) and Article 7, paragraphs 2 and 3.
[7] The text of Israel’s declarations is taken from the UN Treaty Series online database.
[8] See Landmine Monitor Report 2000 for more extensive legal discussion.
[9] Al-Haq Press Release 92, 7 June 2001.
[10] Based on analysis of data from questionnaires collected by Al-Haq, May 1999.
[11] Al-Haq Questionnaire, May 1999.
[12] Ibid.
