Posted on 12/15/24
| News Source: Times of Israel
The cabinet unanimously approves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s NIS 40 million ($11 million) plan to double the population in the Golan Heights.
Around 50,000 people live on the Israeli-controlled side of the heights, evenly split between Jews and Druze.
The money will go toward education, renewable energy, the establishment of a student village and a plan for absorbing new residents, says the Prime Minister’s Office.
“Strengthening the Golan Heights is strengthening the State of Israel,” says Netanyahu, and it is especially important at this time. We will continue to hold on to it, make it flourish and settle it.”
Israel conquered the Golan from Syria in 1967, and annexed it in 1981. Most of the world does not recognize Israeli control, though the US granted its recognition in 2019.