The Golan Heights, internationally recognised as Syrian territory, were
seized by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. The ostensible reason
for this was that the Heights could be
used to terrorise Israel, being mountains with Israeli plains below, and
thus Israel was merely ensuring its security. However the State of
Israel has long claimed the area as rightfully its own – the late film
director Menahem Golan was originally surnamed Globus, but changed his
surname in 1948, during the Israel War of Independence when Israelis
were encouraged to adopt Hebrew names – rather like a German calling
himself Alsace, or a Hungarian calling himself Zagreb.
