A/HRC/43/69 encouraging Israeli youth to work and join the agricultural sector. Implementation of the project would be accompanied by strong financial incentives to support Israeli settlers, most notably if they were farmers raising poultry. The Syrian Arab Republic indicated that, according to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Israel, agriculture was the foundation of the Israeli settlement project in the occupied Syrian Golan. 18. The Syrian Arab Republic noted that Israeli settlers had, with the support of the Israeli occupation authorities, seized an area equivalent to 100,000 dunums in the occupied Syrian Golan for growing different kinds of agricultural produce, including fruit, vegetables, grains and flowers. The Syrian Arab Republic highlighted that this situation caused a serious economic burden for the people living in the Syrian villages, who could not compete with that level of production from Israeli settlements, and threatened their future and livelihoods. 19. The Syrian Arab Republic stressed that the Israeli occupation authorities had been pursuing their policy of expropriating and annexing lands and natural resources, including water, in the occupied Syrian Golan for the benefit of Israeli settlers and that Israeli and multinational companies had played a major role in implementing that policy. The Syrian Arab Republic stated in its note verbale that the land confiscation policy was in violation of fundamental human rights and that its implementation had only been possible by doing the following: (a) Confiscating land owned by internally displaced persons, declaring that it belonged to the State of Israel and justifying those measures by the absence of the owners; the Syrian Arab Republic stressed that this also covered public/common property owned by Syrians and mentioned the village of Massada as a case in point; (b) Confiscating land close to the ceasefire line and planting landmines; (c) Confiscating land for military purposes, including for the establishment of military camps and installations, in addition to paving roads for these purposes, including in areas far from the ceasefire line; (d) Confiscating land to build settlements and affiliated industrial and agricultural zones; (e) Fencing off areas (reportedly approximately 100,000 dunums) under the pretext of placing them for use by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority; (f) Confiscating land indirectly through a process called meshkenta, which involves offering an agricultural loan against a mortgage to an Israeli bank and confiscating the real estate if the loan is not paid in full. 20. The Syrian Arab Republic noted that the Israeli occupation authorities had recently confiscated tens of dunums of land in the Syrian village of Jabata al-Khashab, which lies within the demilitarized zone established by the United Nations in 1974, with the aim of building trenches close to Syrian territory, a step that had led to the isolation of tens of dunums of land belonging to the village of Jabata al-Khashab. 21. The Syrian Arab Republic stated that in April 2019 the Israeli occupation authorities had, in their attempts to impose Israeli citizenship on the inhabitants of the occupied Syrian Golan, revealed their plan to expand existing settlements and build 30,000 new housing units. The Israeli occupation authorities had also announced their plan to transfer 250,000 Israeli settlers to the occupied Syrian Golan with the aim of altering the demographic character of the area. The impact of those settlement projects undermined the livelihood of the Syrian Arab populations through the confiscation of their lands and by preventing them from naturally expanding on their lands. 22. The Syrian Arab Republic noted that Syrian workers and business owners continued to be subjected to discriminatory and abusive practices in the fields of health and employment. It estimated that the unemployment rate in the occupied Syrian Golan was 51 per cent and noted that impediments to access to health included the lack of health practitioners and health centres, especially specialist and emergency/first aid centres. That situation incurred important financial costs on the Syrian population and on Syrian workers, who were compelled to seek health services in other cities, including Nazareth, Safad and 5