Golan Heights: 40 years after annexing territory occupied by Syria, Israel on Sunday unveiled plans to spend more than $300 million to double the population of Jewish settlers in the Golan Heights.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who held his weekly cabinet meeting in the Mewo Hama community in the Golan on Sunday, vowed it was a “moment” to boost the number of Jewish Israelis living in the area.
“Our goal is to double the population in the Golan,” said right-wing Bennett, who presented his one billion shekels ($317 million) program to improve housing, transportation, tourism and medical facilities in the region.
About 25,000 Israeli settlers live in the Golan Heights, along with 23,000 Druze, who remained on the land after it was seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Israel occupied the region on December 14, 1981, in a move that was not recognized by most of the international community.
Former US President Donald Trump, widely seen as pro-Israel, in 2019 granted US recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan.
“It goes without saying that the Golan Heights is Israel,” Bennett said Sunday, noting Trump’s recognition and what he described as “important” the fact that President Joe Biden’s administration “makes it clear Was told that there has been no change in the policy.”
Shortly after the Biden administration took office in January, Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested there were legal questions surrounding Trump’s move, which Syria condemned as a “major violation” of its sovereignty.
But Blinken indicated there was no idea to reverse course, especially in the midst of the ongoing Syrian civil war.
Israel and Syria, which are still technically at war, are separated by a de facto border on the Golan Heights.
Bennett, who leads an ideologically disparate eight-party coalition, needs cabinet approval before his Golan plan can go ahead.
Sunday’s meeting was temporarily delayed when the premier’s 14-year-old daughter tested positive for the coronavirus, sending Bennett into isolation, but a vote on the plan was still expected.
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