Sunday, December 26th, 2021
Region annexed by Syria
Israel wants to colonize the Golan Heights more strongly
Since Israel annexed the Golan Heights in violation of international law in 1981, thousands of Jewish settlers have settled on the rocky plateau. Prime Minister Bennett underscores ownership with an ambitious goal: his government wants to double the number of settlers and invest billions in it.
Israel wants to significantly increase the settlement of the annexed Golan Heights. At a special government meeting in Kibbutz Mevo Chama on the plateau above the Sea of Galilee, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said: “After years of stagnation, our goal today is to double the population.”
In the city of Katzrin they want to build two new quarters. In addition, two new settlements were to be built on the Golan Heights, Assif and Matar. With this goal one wants to invest around one billion shekels (around 280 million euros). The Golan Heights should become Israel’s renewable energy technology center, Bennett said.
Former US President Donald Trump formally recognized the Golan Heights as the state of Israel in March 2019, thereby completing a U-turn in US foreign policy. The Golan Heights are a strategically important rock plateau, about 60 kilometers long and 25 kilometers wide. In 1967 the plateau was conquered by Israel and annexed in 1981. But that was not recognized internationally. According to international law, the territories are considered to be the territory of Syria occupied by Israel.
“After more than ten years of terrible civil war in Syria, every sane person in the world understands that Israeli, calm, thriving, and green Golan Heights are better than any other alternative,” said Bennett. “The Golan Heights are Israeli, that is undisputed.” More than 50,000 people currently live on the rocky plateau, slightly more than half of them Jewish Israelis. The rest are Druze and a small Alawite minority.