ISRAEL SETS GOAL OF DOUBLING NUMBER OF JEWISH SETTLERS ON GOLAN HEIGHTS

Sun 26 December 2021:

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced a $300 million plan to double the number of Jewish Israeli settlers in the Golan Heights. Israel took control of this region from Syria more than 40 years ago.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett conducted his monthly cabinet meeting in the Golan’s Mevo Hama village, vowing that now is the “moment” to increase the number of Jewish Israelis living there.

“Our goal is to double the population in the Golan,” the right-wing Bennett said as he presented his one billion shekel ($317 million) programme to improve housing, transportation, tourism and medical facilities in the area.

During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel took the Golan Heights from Syria.

Approximately 25,000 Israeli settlers live on the Golan Heights, along with 23,000 Druze who remained after Israel took the territory in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Israel annexed the territory on December 14, 1981, in a move not recognised by most of the international community.

Former US President Donald Trump, who is usually seen as pro-Israel, acknowledged Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in 2019.

“It goes without saying that the Golan Heights is Israeli,” Bennett said Sunday, noting the Trump recognition and what he described as the “important” fact that President Joe Biden’s administration had “made it clear that there is no change in policy”.

Bennett, who leads an ideologically diverse eight-party coalition, will require cabinet permission to press forward with his Golan plan.

The meeting on Sunday was postponed temporarily when the premier’s 14-year-old daughter tested positive for the coronavirus, putting Bennett in isolation, but the plan was still anticipated to be voted on.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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