Golan Heights (TPS) – Israel’s cabinet convened in the Golan Heights for the first time ever on Sunday, a move which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cast as a signal to the world that Israel will never relinquish the contested northern territory captured from Syria in 1967.

“I chose to hold this cabinet meeting here, for the first time in the 49 years since the Golan Heights have been ours, to transmit a clear message,” Netanyahu announced. “The Golan Heights will forever stay in Israel’s hands. Israel will never withdraw from the Golan Heights.”

The rare symbolic meeting comes in the wake of reports that some in the international community intend to tie an Israeli withdrawal from the region to a potential peace deal ending the Syrian civil war. Israel and Syria are in a formal state of war, though the Golan Heights border has remained relatively quiet for decades. Israel unilaterally annexed the territory in 1981.

Netanyahu argued forcefully for continued Israeli control of the region.

“During the 19 years in which the Golan Heights were under Syrian occupation, it was used for military bunkers, barbed wire, aggression, and war,” Netanyahu said, referring to the period of Syrian control of the territory following Israel’s independence in 1948. “In the 49 years under Israeli control it has been used for agriculture, tourism, business, construction, and for peace.”

“In the midst of the turmoil around us, Israel is the stabilizer, the solution rather than the problem,” continued Netanyahu. “Many countries in the region already acknowledge this.”

Syria is mired in a years-old civil war fought between the government, a variety of rebel factions, and the terror organization Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Israel fears that a withdrawal from the Golan Heights would place its security in jeopardy in light of the long-term uncertainty regarding Syria’s own future.

“While on our side of the Golan Heights everything is clear and understood, the same cannot be said about the Syrian side,” contended Netanyahu. “I doubt Syria will ever return to what it used to be, adding that certain “terror groups want to impose radical Islam upon Syria and later upon the whole world. Of course we will not allow that.”

“The border will not be moved no matter what happens on the Syrian side,” stressed Netanyahu. “The world needs to understand that the Golan Heights will forever stay in Israel’s hands.”

Nonetheless, Netanyahu expressed Israel’s embrace of a peace deal in Syria that would not compromise Israeli security.

“I told [US] Secretary of State [John Kerry] that we will not object to an internal agreement in Syria as long as it does not come at the expense of Israel’s security,” Netanyahu said. “It is time for the the international community to acknowledge the reality and especially two basic facts, that whatever happens across the border, the border itself will not move and that the Golan Heights will forever stay under Israeli sovereignty.”

Aside from security concerns, however, Netanyahu also alluded to the Jewish people’s historic connection to the Golan Heights region.

“The Golan was an inseparable part of the Land of Israel in ancient times,” said Netanyahu. “The ancient synagogues around us are evidence of this.”

Michael Bachner contributed to this report.