Israeli settler group calls for seizing crops in occupied Syrian land
An Israeli settler group has called for the cultivation and sale of crops from occupied Syrian land.
The Pioneers of Bashan, a group that advocates Israeli settlement in Syria, called for the exploitation of territory captured by Israel in the governorates of Daraa and Quneitra.
"In the small Quneitra District alone, about 2,000 tons of wheat were harvested this year!" the group said on X, referring to crop yeild.
"When this fertile land is worked by pioneering Jews, instead of Hamas-supporting Sunnis, it will yield even more."
The Pioneers of Bashan were founded in April 2025, a few months after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's government in December 2024.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
Assad's fall at the hands of armed opposition groups led by current President Ahmed al-Sharaa prompted Israel to expand its occupation of Syrian territory.
Israel has controlled the Golan Heights since the 1967 war.
Biblical justification
Settler groups like the the Pioneers of Bashan have advocated the settlement of further Syrian territory, often citing Biblical texts as justification.
On Sunday, Israeli forces pushed into the village of Abidin in Daraa, even as residents trying to block the road with stones to stop them.
Israeli forces later responded with artillery fire, prompting residents to flee to nearby villages overnight, according to state media.
Syria's foreign ministry in a statement condemned "the Israeli attacks represented by incursions into Syrian territory in Quneitra and Daraa provinces and the targeting of the region with artillery shelling...a blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty and territorial integrity".
Israeli officials have in recent weeks been increasingly playing up the prospect of war with Syria, claiming the country could become a haven for anti-Israel groups otherwise.
In a series of radio interviews given last week, Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli outlined what he dubbed a "radical Sunni axis of evil" in the Middle East.
“There is no way that a jihadist regime rooted in Isis and al-Qaeda, whose aspiration is the unification of Jerusalem, can live in peace alongside the State of Israel,” the far-right minister said, referring to Sharaa’s government.
Speaking to Israel’s Army Radio on Thursday, Chikli outlined what he considers to be a new anti-Israel alliance made up of Pakistan, Turkey and Qatar, which he said worried him far more than Iran and its ceasefire deal with the US.
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
