evidence: President Donald J. Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights upends a half century of U.S. policy. The strategically important plateau has been widely considered under international law to be occupied territory since its 1967 seizure from Syria. In his proclamation, Trump cited security needs as paramount, though in practice Israeli control has not been challenged for decades. Experts warn the move could weaken international prohibitions on acquiring territory by force. [...] The seven-hundred-square-mile Golan Heights overlooks Israel to its west, Lebanon to its north, Syria to its east, and Jordan to its south. During the 1967 Six Day War, Syrian forces on the Golan Heights shelled Israeli farms in the Hula Valley below, and Israeli forces captured the territory from them following the Israeli seizure of the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt and the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan. [...] In practice, U.S. recognition of Israel’s claim of sovereignty over the Golan Heights will change little for the territory itself. There is currently no challenge to Israeli authority there. And, as with the 2017 decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, few if any countries are likely to follow the U.S. lead; international consensus that the Golan Heights is occupied territory will remain unchanged.