Israel approves plan to double settlers in occupied Golan

GOLAN HEIGHTS — Israel's government on Sunday approved a $317 million plan to double the Jewish settler population in the Golan Heights, 40 years after it annexed the territory captured from Syria.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's Cabinet voted in favour of the plan that aims to build 7,300 settler units in the region over a five-year period, during a meeting held at the Mevo Hama community in the Golan.

It calls for 1 billion Israeli shekels to be spent on settler units, infrastructure and other projects with the goal of attracting roughly 23,000 new Jewish settlers to the area, seized during the 1967 war.

"Our goal today is to double the population of the Golan Heights," the right-wing Bennett said ahead of the meeting.

'No change' in US policy 

Around 25,000 Israeli settlers live in the Golan Heights, along with about 23,000 Druze, who remained on the land after Israel seized it.

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

Former US president Donald Trump, widely viewed as pro-Israeli, granted US recognition to Israeli sovereignty over the Golan in 2019.

Shortly after Biden took office in January, his Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested there were legal questions surrounding Trump’s move, which Syria condemned as a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty.

But Blinken indicated there was no thought of reversing course, especially with the Syrian civil war continuing.

Roughly 475,000 settlers now live in the West Bank in communities widely regarded as illegal under international law.

Bennett is a former head of a settler lobbying council who opposes Palestinian statehood.

Israel and Syria, which are still technically at war, are separated by a de facto border at the Golan Heights.