Israel announced plan to double the Jewish settlers in occupied Golan Heights

 Israel has prepared a plan to spend $317 million to double the Jewish population in Golan Heights

 Golan Heights was Syrian territory taken over by Israel in 1967. It is still a Syrian area under the international law but Israel continues to increase the Jewish population in this area. Syria still claims Golan Heights as its territory illegally occupied by Israel. Israel annexed the territory on December 14, 1981, in a move not recognised by most of the international community.

In an effort to further consolidate its position in Golan and to increase Jewish population, the Israeli cabinet approved a $317 million development plan to double the Jewish population in the occupied hilly region. The Israeli cabinet held its weekly meeting on Sunday in the occupied Golan Heights. Israel occupied the Golan Heights during the 1967 Arab-Israel war.

Israel occupied the Golan Heights in 1967 and 14 years later, in 1981, annexed the area. Under international law, the region is still considered Syrian territory occupied by Israel. Israel has long argued that Golan has been fully integrated into Israel  and that control of the strategic plateau is needed as protection from Iran and its allies in Syria.

However, the decision will complicate any future attempt to forge peace with Syria, which claims the region. More than 50,000 people live in the area — just over half of them Jewish Israelis, along with Druze and a small Alawite minority.

The right wing Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has announce the investment alongside ministers at Kibbutz Mevo Hama, which includes the goal to double the population to 100,000 with infrastructure and transportation upgrades and construction of new communities and housing units.

Around 25,000 Israeli settlers live in the Golan Heights, along with some 23,000 Druze, who remained on the land after it was seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

The plan also includes the creation of 2,000 jobs to turn the Golan Heights into renewable energy hub.  A team led by the director general of the Prime Minister's Office, Yair Pines, formulated the plan, with the goal of increasing the population of the Golan Regional Council and Katzrin Local Council between 2022 and 2025.

Katzrin, known as the unofficial capital of the Golan, will see 3,300 new housing units built within five years as part of $183 million allotted toward planning and housing. In addition, the government intends to establish two new communities in the Golan, Assif and Matar. Israel has already annexed the Golan Heights. 

 In 2019, former US president Donald Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied in the 1967 war. A new community, named Trump Heights, was subsequently established in the Golan to honour the pro-Israel gesture of the American president.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that “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.

Around 25,000 Israeli settlers live in the Golan Heights, along with some 23,000 Druze, who remained on the land after it was seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Israel continues to occupy more Palestinian lands and establish more Jewish settlements in the areas it occupied during 1967 war. Palestinians have been forced out of their homeland, deprived of their land and subjected to unceasing repression, arbitrary arrests and collective punishment. They have seen entire neighbourhoods being demolished and people uprooted to make way for illegal Israeli settlements. 

                                                                       Khalid Bhatti