For Israel to grant a US company (Genie Energy) the license to explore for oil in the occupied Golan Heights is signaling to the world that the occupied Golan Heights fully belongs to Israel. The New York-based company that was granted the license includes Jacob Rothschild, Rupert Murdoch, and Dick Cheney among its shareholders. Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights has not been recognized under international law.
This attempt, as in the Palestinian territories, to create in the West Bank and Jerusalem further settlements and now licensing foreign companies to explore for oil in Syrian territory is a testament to the fact (in a most provocative way) that Israel does not and has not ever considered itself except as a conqueror with the prerogative to deny the rights of the conquered territories and its people. This is obviously a crude and cruel exploitation by Israel of the tragic internal crisis that Syria is experiencing at this moment.