The Levant is undergoing a profound transformation of sovereignty and borders. Years of protracted conflict and the collapse of centralized state structures have created geopolitical vacuums, enabling the rise of non-state actors with expansionist projects. In this context, Israeli settlement projects constitute extensions of an ideological logic that reproduces itself whenever states disintegrate and central authority recedes. It is against this backdrop that the "Halutzei HaBashan" (Pioneers of Bashan), a subset of the Israeli settler movement hoping to settle and annex southern Syria, emerges as one of the most dangerous expressions of this trajectory.
The Halutzei HaBashan movement was officially founded in 2025 and brought together settlers with long experience in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the similarly occupied Syrian Golan Heights, giving it both organizational weight and operational capacity. Professor Amos Azaria stands out as one of its principal ideologues, promoting the notion that the land of Bashan — or South Syria — is an integral part of the land of Israel.
Halutzei HaBashan seeks to transfer the settlement model from the West Bank and the Golan deeper into southern Syria. The group believes that the collapse of the Syrian state presents a historic opportunity to impose a new demographic reality that would prevent the restoration of full Syrian sovereignty over the area. The goal is to take advantage of the vacuum that followed the December 2024 fall of Syria's Assad regime and the region's rapidly shifting balance of power. In this context, the movement benefits from regional and international realignments, including Syria's exhaustion after years of war, allowing it to present its agenda as feasible in the absence of a strong central authority in Damascus capable of fully exercising sovereignty.
Halutzei HaBashan seeks to transfer the settlement model from the West Bank and the Golan deeper into southern Syria.
- Ahmed Abdelhalim
The settler group cannot be understood as merely a marginal faction on the Israeli right. Rather, it is the spearhead of a broader and growing project aimed at reshaping the region's geography along biblical narratives and security rationales. Its discourse embodies settler movement ideology, fusing a claimed Jewish "right" to the land of Bashan with the idea of establishing a settlement buffer that advances Israel's security interests. As such, the group has attempted to establish settlement outposts in Syria's Quneitera and Dara'a, as well as in areas of the Damascus countryside.
Halutzei HaBashan's roots date back to the late 19th century, when Zionist organizations began purchasing land in the Golan and Hauran, between southern Syria and northern Jordan, through transactions with absentee feudal families — most notably the Lebanese Sursock family. These purchases were not merely agricultural investments: They formed part of a strategic vision to establish geographic continuity between Jewish settlements in Palestine and the Syrian hinterland. This process passed through pivotal stages, from the military occupation of the Golan in 1967 to its formal annexation in 1981 to Israel's post-Assad expansion beyond the 1974 disengagement lines established after the Yom Kippur War.
The fall of the Assad regime marked a turning point that moved these ideas from mere rhetoric to action. Under the pretext of preventing militant infiltration after Assad's fall, Israel rapidly expanded its military presence in southern Syria, crossing the disengagement line and seizing large areas in Quneitra, the slopes of Mount Hermon and much of the Yarmouk Basin. Israel's invasion of Syria provided security cover for Halutzei HaBashan, who argue that civilian settlement is the only means of transforming temporary military control into permanent sovereignty.
The movement quickly began organizing field activities, including border marches, attempts to breach the separation fence and outreach to local Syrian villages to entrench the idea that "stability" is now contingent on Israel's presence. Between August and November 2025, the area witnessed concrete steps toward establishing settlement outposts, most notably the laying of the foundation stone for the Neveh HaBashan settlement near Bir Ajam in the Quneitra countryside. Although occasionally clashing with the Israeli military, Halutzei HaBashan members follow the well-known pattern of "unauthorized outposts" in the West Bank, whereby initiatives begin informally and gradually become a state-protected fait accompli.
Israel's invasion of Syria provided security cover for Halutzei HaBashan, who argue that civilian settlement is the only means of transforming temporary military control into permanent sovereignty.
- Ahmed Abdelhalim
Settlement and military activity has concentrated on strategically sensitive points, such as the eastern slopes of Mount Hermon and the Yarmouk Basin, a borderland rich in water resources and agricultural land. Israel has transformed military positions into semi-permanent outposts, just as it previously did across the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This deployment, coupled with settler incursions, reflects Israel's effort to transform the buffer zone into new settlement depth that imposes different geographic and demographic realities, especially as Israeli officials continue to call for a long-term security belt extending into Syrian territory to prevent any return of hostile forces.
These developments raise questions about the relationship between unofficial settlement initiatives and Israeli state policy. While the army occasionally evacuates some settlers, the broader political environment reveals implicit support from influential figures in the government, such as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who openly endorse the idea of a "Greater Israel" extending well beyond its current borders. This support signals to the movement's activists that their actions fall within a long-term strategic project aimed at raising territorial demands that will later be imposed in any future settlement between Israel and Syria.
On the Syrian side, the transitional administration faces a difficult equation. It seeks international legitimacy while simultaneously confronting ongoing violations of its sovereignty from a neighbor that rarely faces repercussions due to its relationship with the United States. Under Israeli military pressure and American "mediation," Damascus entered indirect talks that produced a security and intelligence coordination mechanism to reduce tensions. Despite official Syrian insistence on sovereignty, these arrangements effectively amount to a tacit acceptance of an expanding Israeli presence on Syrian territory, exchanged for Israel's promise to halt military expansion and work toward a more equitable and stable security pact.
The implications of this project do not stop at the boundaries of the conventional conflict. They extend to the reconfiguration of the political geography established by the Sykes–Picot order. The emerging landscape is one of flexible borders governed by military force and demographic advantage, raising the prospect of a form of "geographic apartheid" in southern Syria, where settlements enjoy protection and services while Syrian villages suffer marginalization and isolation. Such a reality would create a permanent zone of tension, likely to generate new waves of forced displacement and cross-border conflict.
Halutzei HaBashan represents a model of how historical rupture can be exploited to re-engineer place and population according to a specific ideological vision. The project is not limited to building new settlements; it seeks to redraw maps and impose realities that will be difficult to reverse. Without the restoration of Syrian sovereignty or effective international pressure to curb this expansion, the land of Bashan could move from a historical concept to a new geopolitical reality, negatively reshaping southern Syria and the wider region.
The views and positions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of DAWN.
