Israel agreed on Sunday to double its population in the occupied Golan Heights while saying threats from Syria remained despite moderate language from rebel leaders who ousted President Bashar Assad a week ago.
Strengthening the Golan strengthens the state of Israel, which is especially important at this time. “We will continue to hold on to it, make it flourish, and settle there,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
Israel captured most of the strategic plateau from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in 1981.
In 2019, then-US President Donald Trump declared US support for Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, but the annexation has not been recognized by most countries. Syria has demanded that Israel withdraw, but Israel has refused, citing security concerns. Various peace efforts have failed.
“The immediate dangers to the country have not disappeared, and the recent developments in Syria are making the threat even more potent — despite the benign image that the rebel leaders claim to present,” Defense Minister Yisrael Katz told officials examining Israel’s defense budget. A statement.
The cabinet unanimously approved a plan worth more than NIS 40 million ($11 million) to encourage demographic growth in the Golan Heights, Netanyahu’s office said.
It added that Netanyahu presented the plan to the cabinet “in light of the war and the new front facing Syria, and out of a desire to double the population of the Golan.”
