A/HRC/34/37 payment of bail of $4,000; they were, however, subsequently prevented from returning to their villages in the occupied Syrian Golan and were instead transferred to areas in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The Syrian Arab Republic provided details on four of these alleged cases, and on other alleged cases of arbitrary detention. 16. According to the Syrian Arab Republic, Israel had demolished, without prior notice, the private house of a Syrian citizen in Majdal Shams in the occupied Syrian Golan, and had used excessive force against members of the local population opposing the demolition. The Syrian Arab Republic also pointed out that the so-called “Planning and Building Commission” in the occupied Syrian Golan had ordered the demolition of another private home in the same area. 17. In its note verbale, the Syrian Arab Republic underlined the mine-laying practices of Israel in the occupied Syrian Golan, which threatened Arab villages and surrounding areas, as well as grazing lands. According to the Syrian Arab Republic, the explosion of landmines had caused dozens of casualties and numerous injuries to Syrians, and had rendered thousands of acres of land unusable for agricultural purposes. 18. According to the Syrian Arab Republic, Syrians were subject to restrictions on their enjoyment of economic, cultural and social rights, including the right to freedom of movement and the right to family life; for example, Syrians wishing to travel to visit family in the Syrian Arab Republic were prevented from doing so, since they could then be prohibited from returning to the occupied Syrian Golan owing to the closure of the Qunaytirah crossing and/or out of fear of being arrested by the Israeli authorities. 19. In its note verbale, the Permanent Mission of the Syrian Arab Republic claimed that Israeli forces were supporting terrorist groups, including the Nusrah Front,1 in the area of separation and the Syrian Arab Republic. It claimed that Israel had recently expanded its control over the Yarmouk and Ruqqad valleys in rural Dar’a in the south-western area of the Syrian Arab Republic with the assistance of these terrorist groups. 20. The Syrian Arab Republic provided information about actions conducted by Israel allegedly aimed at eroding the pre-1967 borders by means of creating the de facto impression of geographic and political unity of the occupied Syrian Golan and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The Permanent Mission underlined what it described as border effacement carried out by Israel through academic, social and political means. By way of example, it referred to the inclusion in 2015 by Israel of local councils in Majdal alShams, Buq’ata, Mas’ada and Ein Qiniyye into the so-called “union of Eastern Galilee towns”. 21. The Syrian Arab Republic also provided information on Israel’s plan to create the natural reserve of the “Hermon National Park”, de facto confiscating thousands of acres of land in the Jabal al-Shaykh area in the northern and western occupied Syrian Golan. On 13 July 2016, the District Planning Commission under the Israeli Ministry of the Interior published in its official papers a detailed structural plan for 82,000 acres of land. The Syrian Arab Republic claimed that the plan would result in the seizure of 7,000 acres of land pertaining to Majdal al-Shams in the north and west, exacerbating the town’s housing crisis and preventing the natural expansion of the city to accommodate population growth. The Majdal al-Shams Endowment Commission had endeavoured over the past 15 years to implement a project to distribute housing plots to local inhabitants. The project had resulted in the attribution of some 750,000 land rights documents, mostly covering areas identified 1 4 On 30 May 2013, the Security Council designated the Nusrah Front a terrorist group pursuant to Council resolution 1267 (1999). In July 2016, the Nusrah Front announced it was changing its name to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (“Front for the Conquest of the Levant”).