Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday that he had selected the site for the new Jewish settlement on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, which will be named after US President Donald Trump.
Netanyahu said the settlement was in recognition of Trump’s efforts in declaring Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the city.
“This week we will mark one year since the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem,” said Netanyahu during the weekly cabinet meeting. He added that the residence of the US Ambassador was also officially moving to Jerusalem a year after Trump recognized the city as the capital of Israel.
The PM appreciated Trump’s historic decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
“I promised that we would establish a community named after President Trump. I would like to inform you that we have already selected a site on the Golan Heights where this new community will be established, and we have started the process," Netanyahu said.
"I will submit a decision for official approval by the new government once it is formed," he added.
Sources close to Netanyahu said that he intends to lay the foundation for this settlement in the Golan, next month, marking 52 years of occupation.
The new settlement will be built near Qelaa Alon settlement, on the ruins of the destroyed Syrian village of al-Qala in the north of the Golan Heights, and under a previous plan for the establishment of the settlement in 1992, which did not come into force.
Since its occupation of Golan in 1967, Israel has established a city called Katzrin and 32 other settlements, inhabited by 22,000 settlers.
The last settlement established was in 1999, at the initiative of Netanyahu, who was prime minister at the time before losing for Ehud Barak. Since then, several plans have been put in place to expand settlement activity there, one of which discusses increasing the number of settlements to reach 250,000, but all failed.
Regional Council of Golan Settlements decided to celebrate this week the US recognition of Israeli sovereignty on the area.
The Council issued a statement describing the recognition as a “historic opportunity” to make a huge leap forward in the development of the Golan Heights to reach the goal of doubling the settlements over the next decade.
This, however, requires the government to provide the territory with the appropriate infrastructure that the government must ratify in order to proceed with the construction.
The Council also called for attracting foreign investors, mainly US businessmen and donors, in the agriculture, tourism and construction sectors.
