Settler project for 'Greater Israel' sets its eyes on Syria

AI Summary

Israeli settler activists, organized by the Halutzei HaBashan group, have intensified efforts to settle in southern Syria and transform the occupied Golan Heights into part of a 'Greater Israel'. This movement has political backing and reflects rising tensions around Israeli territorial claims beyond the 1974 ceasefire line.

Settler project for 'Greater Israel' sets its eyes on Syria Reem Aouir on Thu, 07/02/2026 - 10:46 As Israel deepens its hold in southern Syria, settlers want to transform the occupied territory into a new frontier Israeli settlers gather along the fence separating the occupied Golan Heights from southern Syria on 17 May (X/HaluzeyHabashan) Off A group of Israeli settler activists gathered along the fence separating the occupied Golan Heights from southern Syria in mid-May. Some chained themselves to the barrier while at least ten crossed into Syrian territory near the town of Majdal Shams, at the foot of Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh). Organised by Halutzei HaBashan (Pioneers of Bashan), the act was the latest in a series of provocations demanding that Israel authorise Jewish settlements beyond the 1974 ceasefire line. Israel's military later confirmed that "[soldiers] returned the civilians to Israeli territory and apprehended them," transferring them to the Israeli police.  Since its founding, Halutzei HaBashan has emerged as one of the most prominent movements advocating for permanent settlement in Syria beyond the 1974 ceasefire line. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Golan Heights have been occupied since 1967 and Israel's annexation of the Syrian territory has been recognised by Washington. Over the past year, the movement has evolved from a fringe group into a larger and more coordinated movement with ministers and members of the Israeli parliament lending it public support. Following the May incursion, the movement told the Israeli news outlet Srugim that they "will not back down and will not stop until the right-wing government allows families who wish to do so to enter and settle in Bashan in an organised and legal manner." Who are the 'Pioneers of Bashan'? Halutzei HaBashan was founded in April 2025, months after Israeli forces rushed to grab land inside southern Syria by capitalising on the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government in December 2024. The movement takes its name from Bashan, the biblical region east of the Jordan River that, according to the Hebrew Bible, stretched from Mount Hermon in the north to Gilead in the south. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); According to the Greater Israel project, the State of Israel has no defined borders and, according to religious Zionists, the boundaries promised to them in the Bible stretch from the Nile river in Egypt to the Euphrates in Iraq, as far north as Hatay in Turkey and as far south as the Hejaz in Saudi Arabia. 'All the sons of the Sunnah and the Shia that are in the Bashan area will be expelled and destroyed until they are worthless and powerful as the dust of the earth' - Halutzei HaBashan, Israeli settler group The movement therefore views Syria not as foreign territory but as part of the ancestral Jewish homeland with southern Syria being the immediate objective. According to Murad Mohammed al-Hamwi, an open-source investigative journalist, while the group's public activity is recent, its members are far from amateurs taking advantage of the chaotic situation after the Assad dynasty's demise. "These are unarmed and veteran settlers, many coming directly from the West Bank and the occupied Golan, with a long-term objective of establishing permanent Jewish settlements in the country's south," he told Middle East Eye. The group's public ideology often crosses into explicit calls for ethnic cleansing of its local population. In an April Facebook post reviewed by MEE, it called for the expulsion of all Sunni and Shia from the Bashan region, declaring that the area would "flourish" only under Israeli rule. It read: “All the sons of the Sunnah and the Shia that are in the Bashan area will be expelled and destroyed until they are worthless and powerful as the dust of the earth, and the Bashan rope will flourish and achieve in the regime of the sons of Israel to their land!” The movement's leading public figure is Amos Azaria, an Israeli academic, religious-nationalist activist and long-time advocate of Jewish settlement beyond Israel's internationally recognised borders. In interviews and public statements, Azaria has argued that Israel's military presence in southern Syria should be followed by permanent Jewish civilian settlement, presenting Bashan as both a strategic security buffer and a biblical inheritance. Azaria also serves as a key ideological bridge between various radical expansionist movements. His ambitions are not limited to the Syrian border; he is also a prominent leader in Uri Tzafon, a far-right, religious Zionist movement, an officially registered Israeli organisation that campaigns for Jewish settlement in southern Lebanon. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Alongside Azaria, the group is led by Jonathan Levy, the field coordinator who provides the strategic rationale for the incursions, and spokespers