Al-Marsad

Land and water, family separation, settlements, housing and planning restrictions form the principal subjects of Al-Marsad’s stated human-rights work.[2] Its mission centers on promoting human rights and respect for the rule of law in the Syrian Golan, particularly through international humanitarian and human-rights law.[2] Its stated activities include documenting violations affecting civilians and private property, researching civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, providing community legal services and raising human-rights awareness.[2]

The organization also seeks to inform national policymakers and intergovernmental institutions about the region’s history, contemporary circumstances and legal issues affecting Syrians there.[5] Its work combines local research with publications and submissions to international human-rights bodies.[3][5] The name is not unique: Mapam also used Al Marsad for an Arabic weekly, a publication distinct from the Golan-based organization.[6]

Al-Marsad was established in October 2003 by lawyers and professionals working in health, education, journalism, engineering and town planning, together with human-rights defenders and other community members.[1] Its headquarters are in Majdal Shams.[5] A January 2019 parallel report described its founders as human-rights activists and intellectuals from Syrian villages in the Golan and listed legal, advocacy, cultural-enrichment and educational activities among its work.[7]

A 2013 news report identified Salman Fakhr Eddin as the organization’s public relations officer in coverage of young Golan Druze applying for Israeli citizenship.[8] He estimated that Israeli citizens would account for no more than 4 percent of the Golan Druze population, which the article placed at approximately 22,000.[8] In 2014, Salman Fakheraldeen, born and raised in Majdal Shams, was identified as a researcher with the local human-rights group.[9] Discussing nearby fighting in Syria, he said: “But the last three weeks have been surreal. It has been constant. The fighting has never been this close [to the Golan Heights].”[9]

The organization became a member of the International Federation for Human Rights in August 2016.[5] Its partnerships include Adalah and Al-Haq, and it belongs to the Occupied Palestine and Syrian Golan Heights Advocacy Initiative.[5] In January 2022, it introduced a settlements research and monitoring program focused on Israeli settlements in the Golan, with particular attention to expansion since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011.[4]

The 2013 report Water is Life: A Consideration of the Legality and Consequences of Israeli Exploitation of the Water Resources of the Occupied Syrian Golan examined water access and distribution, farming and legal questions in the Golan.[3] Written by international human-rights law researcher Kathy Keary and edited by Hannah Russell, it drew on interviews conducted in 2010 with local farmers, an agronomist and other residents.[3]

The report’s central argument was that water-management policies disadvantaged Arab farmers relative to Israeli settler farmers.[3] Its account described 17 cooperatives administering water in the Majdal Shams area, supplied by Mekorot, and linked additional infrastructure costs and lower quotas for Arab farmers to differences in agricultural costs and production.[3] A comparison for June and July 2009 presented water use of 77,920 cubic metres on a 180-dunam farm in Dovev and 139,375 cubic metres at the 1,500-dunam Birket Ram cooperative, calculated as 433 and 93 cubic metres per dunam respectively.[3]

Other estimates in the report placed annual extraction from deep wells in the Golan above 10 million cubic metres.[3] Its historical account identified Allone HaBashan 2 as the first well to produce a significant quantity, in 1984, followed by seven additional deep wells.[3] It estimated that Lake Tiberias and its surrounding basin supplied 560 million cubic metres annually to Israel’s water economy, approximately 33 percent of annual freshwater consumption.[3]

The report also addressed land and irrigation disputes around Birket Ram.[3] Its account linked the pumping of water into the lake to altered capacity and flooding of nearby Arab-owned land, described compensation for some farmers, and referred to a court case involving others that had continued for approximately 30 years.[3] An interview conducted on 21 May 2010 quoted agronomist Shhady Nasralla describing the dispute as having continued for “25-30 years.”[3]

Subsequent publications included the 2018 book Forgotten Occupation: Life in the Syrian Golan after 50 Years of Israeli Occupation and the 2019 report Windfall: The Exploitation of Wind Energy in the Occupied Syrian Golan.[5] These works extended the organization’s advocacy to displacement, natural-resource use and wind-energy development.[5]

Al-Marsad contributed to the stakeholder process for Israel’s 2018 Universal Periodic Review.[10] Its submission raised concerns about the Israeli curriculum and school system in the Golan, settlement and population figures, overcrowding associated with land and housing policies, and the rejection of Israeli citizenship by most of the native Syrian population.[10] The resulting UN document summarized stakeholder submissions in condensed form because of word limits.[10]

Other international submissions included an April 2018 “List of Issues” to the UN Human Rights Committee and a September 2019 report with Al-Haq to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.[5] In January 2022, Al-Marsad joined several organizations in a report to the Human Rights Committee concerning human-rights defenders.[5]

A joint parallel report with Al-Haq and Cornell Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic examined oil, gas and renewable-energy projects.[11] Its argument connected policies and business activities in territories under Israeli control to harm to Palestinian and Syrian livelihoods, culture and development.[11] Al-Marsad’s advocacy also includes support for boycotting Israeli products originating in Golan settlements, labeling such products and seeking international action on settlement activity and natural-resource use.[5]

On 28 January 2026, Al-Marsad met with an International Committee of the Red Cross delegation.[12] Its account of the meeting described discussion of alleged violations affecting civilians and infrastructure in the disengagement-zone buffer area, as well as Syrian detainees’ access to legal representation and communication about their detention.[12] The account attributed to the delegation a statement that Al-Marsad’s information closely aligned with its own database, particularly regarding detainees and communication barriers.[12]

Al-Marsad receives support through grants from foundations and individuals, with more than half of its funding coming from foreign state entities.[2] Its funding statement specifies that views expressed on its website are its own and do not represent donors’ official positions.[2]

Financial information submitted to Israel’s Registrar of Non-Profits showed NIS 5,737,008 in funding from foreign governmental bodies during 2013–2022.[5] For 2020, total income was NIS 828,697 and total expenses were NIS 767,577.[5]

Al-Marsad brings locally focused research on agriculture, land, housing and other rights issues in the Golan into international advocacy through publications, organizational partnerships and submissions to UN bodies.[3][5] Its work encompasses both community-facing legal and educational activities and advocacy concerning the wider legal and political circumstances of Syrians in the Golan.[2][7] In its 2019 parallel report, it described itself as “the only human rights organization” operating in the occupied Syrian Golan.[7]

Al-Marsad’s characterizations of Israeli policy, settlement activity and resource use are advocacy positions rather than independently established legal conclusions.[3][5] The water-allocation comparisons and accounts of land disputes in Water is Life derive from the organization’s research and interviews; preservation of the report in an archive does not independently verify its findings.[3] Similarly, inclusion of its concerns in UN stakeholder summaries does not make them findings independently reached by the UN.[10]

In June 2019, Energix sued Al-Marsad, alleging violations of Israeli defamation and anti-boycott laws.[5] Al-Marsad characterized the lawsuit as a challenge to its human-rights work and sought intervention from the UN and European Union; the case remained ongoing as of September 2020.[5] A UN communication dated 20 January 2020 concerned allegations of a smear campaign and strategic litigation connected to the organization’s opposition to a renewable-energy project.[13] The communication table recorded a substantive reply on 20 March 2020, but did not adjudicate the allegations.[13]

A 2020 JNS opinion column criticized Al-Marsad’s opposition to the Trump administration’s recognition of the Golan Heights as Israeli, alleged support for BDS and argued that the organization made false claims about Israel’s legal rights to the territory.[14]