Bashan

Overview

Bashan is a historic region east of the Jordan River and north of the Yarmuk River, extending toward Mount Hermon. Its western reaches include the Golan Heights, part of the State of Israel. Most of historic Bashan lies in Syria and is today occupied by Syria. Bashan has no single modern administration or region-wide population count. Its name connects biblical accounts of Og’s kingdom and Israelite settlement with the geography of the present-day Israeli–Syrian frontier.

Geography

The Yarmuk marks Bashan’s southern approach, while Mount Hermon rises at its northern edge. The Golan Heights occupy its western portion, overlooking the Sea of Galilee and the Galilee. The ancient name Golan referred to a particular city in Bashan; it must be distinguished from the modern Golan Heights, a larger plateau. Greek and Roman use of the name Gaulanitis contributed to the plateau’s modern name. Banias, Katzrin and communities served by the Golan Regional Council are among places associated with historic Bashan. Mount Bental stands in the Golan Heights.

History

The biblical books of Deuteronomy and Joshua describe Og as king of Bashan, with centers at Ashtaroth and Edrei. His kingdom extended toward Mount Hermon and included Argob. In the biblical account, Og confronted the Israelites at Edrei; they defeated him and captured Argob’s sixty cities. Bashan and the remaining part of Gilead were allotted to the half-tribe of Manasseh. Jair, identified with Manasseh, took settlements in Argob that became known as Havvoth-jair. These texts also preserve the name “Golan in Bashan.”

Bashan and northern Gilead retained settlement during a decline affecting southern Transjordan in the twentieth century BCE. Later, Israelite and Aramean powers competed for the region. King Ahab of Israel defeated Ben-Hadad I of Damascus near present-day Kibbutz Afik. In August 636, Arab forces defeated the Byzantines in the Yarmuk Valley on the southern edge of the Golan Heights, a turning point in the region’s history. Druze communities began settling the northern Golan Heights and Mount Hermon’s slopes in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. During and after Egyptian rule from 1831 to 1840, Sudanese, Algerian, Turkoman and Samarian Arab communities also settled the plateau. Ottoman authorities brought Circassians there in the 1880s to fight Bedouin brigands.

Jewish history

Returning Jewish exiles from Babylonia settled the area of today’s Golan Heights in the late sixth and fifth centuries BCE. Joshua identifies ancient Golan as a city of refuge allotted from Manasseh’s territory; it was a city within Bashan, not another name for the entire modern plateau. In the mid-second century BCE, Judah Maccabee and his brothers aided Jewish communities in the area after attacks by neighboring communities. Hasmonean King Alexander Jannai added the Golan Heights to his kingdom during his reign from 103 to 76 BCE.

Gamla became the Golan area’s chief Jewish city and its last Jewish stronghold to resist Rome during the Great Revolt; it fell in 67 CE. Archaeologists have excavated remains of at least 25 synagogues from communities dating between the revolt and the Arab conquest in 636. Organized Jewish settlement in the Golan Heights ended after that conquest. It resumed in 1886, when the B’nei Yehuda society of Safed purchased land and established Ramataniya, a community that lasted one year. The society purchased additional land in 1887; a later community survived until 1920, when its two remaining members were murdered during anti-Jewish riots. Baron Rothschild bought approximately 18,000 acres in the wider Bashan area in 1891.

Government and politics

The Golan Heights, part of Israel and historic Bashan, came under Israeli control in the 1967 Six-Day War. On December 14, 1981, the Knesset extended Israeli law, jurisdiction and administration to the Golan Heights. The law took effect in Israel upon passage. United Nations Security Council Resolution 497 opposed the decision and declared it without international legal effect; it did not repeal Israeli law. On March 25, 2019, US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Israeli and Syrian leaders explored possible arrangements concerning the Golan Heights. Yitzhak Rabin’s willingness to discuss withdrawal produced a more substantive dialogue with Hafez al-Assad. In 2010, Syrian foreign minister Walid Muallem proposed phased withdrawals in exchange for successive steps toward normalization, while deferring questions about Syria’s support for Hamas and Hezbollah and its relations with Iran’s regime. No transfer followed. Within Israel’s Golan Heights, Druze residents gained the right to vote in municipal elections in October 2018. Applications for Israeli citizenship among Druze residents increased significantly after 2015.

Military and security

After the 1949 armistice, Syrian soldiers used positions in the Golan Heights to shell Israeli farms and villages in the Galilee. Before the 1967 war, Syrian forces also attacked Israeli kibbutzim from the plateau. By that war’s end, Israel controlled about two-thirds of the strategic Golan Heights. In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Syrian tanks overran much of the plateau before Israeli forces drove them back; roughly 180 Israeli tanks initially faced 1,400 Syrian tanks there. The 1974 disengagement arrangement established a separation area monitored by United Nations forces.

The Syrian civil war weakened security across that frontier. UN monitors curtailed patrols on the Syrian side in 2012. Syrian mortars landed outside Moshav Ramat Magshimim in March 2013, while rebels kidnapped peacekeepers in 2013 and again amid fighting in 2014. Rebel forces including the al-Nusra Front seized most of the separation area and the Quneitra crossing in 2014. After United Nations forces withdrew most personnel to Israel, the Israel Defense Forces opened alternative crossings for supplies and medical evacuation. Hezbollah later built an armed network across the frontier. A Hezbollah rocket attack directed by Fuad Shukr killed 12 children and teenagers playing soccer in Majdal Shams on July 27, 2024, and injured 44 others.

Following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Israel launched Operation Arrow of Bashan on December 8, 2024. Israel reinforced defenses in the Golan Heights; the IDF’s 210th Bashan Division deployed into the buffer zone and took positions on Mount Hermon to protect Israeli communities. Air and naval strikes targeted abandoned Assad regime weapons, military bases, aircraft, air defenses, naval assets and production facilities, including facilities for chemical weapons. The IDF reported destroying 70–80% of the former regime’s military capabilities within 48 hours. Israel acted to prevent strategic weapons from reaching hostile forces. In February 2025, Israeli forces searched the buffer zone for weapons left by Assad’s forces.

Relations with Israel

Israeli security policy in Bashan’s frontier area focuses on protecting Golan Heights communities and preventing hostile forces from establishing positions nearby. After Assad’s fall, Israel ordered the IDF to prevent weapons moving from Iran’s regime through Syria to Lebanon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Syria’s new rulers against permitting Iranian entrenchment or using Syrian territory to arm Hezbollah, a terrorist organization. On July 16, 2025, Israel reinforced forces along the Golan Heights as its military acted to protect Druze in As-Suwayda.

Economy

Agriculture has long been important in the Golan Heights, particularly on its lower, more cultivable ground. Modern development includes Israeli investment in housing and communities. In 2021, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced a plan worth approximately NIS 1 billion to strengthen Golan Heights communities, with a goal of doubling their population. It called for two new neighborhoods in Katzrin and two new communities, Asif and Matar. No comparable economic figures cover Bashan as a whole, because its historic extent does not form a single modern administrative area.

Society and religion

Jewish, Druze, Muslim and Christian communities have lived in parts of historic Bashan across different periods. About 18,000 Druze live in the Golan Heights, including residents of Majdal Shams, Mas’ade and Buq’ata. Some Buq’ata residents’ earlier reluctance to identify with Israel reflected fear that the Golan Heights might be transferred to Syrian control. Jewish communities returned to the plateau after 1967, while its ancient synagogues and the biblical city of Golan preserve a much older record of Jewish life in Bashan.