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The move comes days after rebel groups overthrew Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, weeks before Donald Trump became US president again.
Israel’s government approved a plan to increase the number of settlers in the illegally occupied Golan Heights, days after seizing more Syrian territory following the overthrow of Syria’s former leader Bashar al-Assad.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the government had “unanimously approved” the “demographic development” of the occupied territory, which would seek to double the Israeli population there.
The new plan is only for the part of the Golan Heights that Israel has occupied since 1967. In 1981, Israel’s Knesset took steps to impose Israeli law on the territory, in an effective annexation.
The plan does not relate to the portion of Syrian land confiscated by Israel following the overthrow of al-Assad a week ago. The occupied zone, which had been demilitarized as part of an agreement reached after the 1973 war, also includes Mount Hermon, which overlooks the Syrian capital, Damascus.
In a statement, Netanyahu praised the plan, which provides more than 40 million shekels ($11 million) to increase the settler population.
There are already around 31,000 Israeli settlers spread across dozens of illegal settlements in the Golan Heights. They live alongside minority groups, including the Druze, who predominantly identify as Syrian.
“Strengthening the Golan is strengthening the State of Israel, and it is especially important at this time,” Netanyahu said. “We will continue to hold on to it, make it flourish and settle in it.”
Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said the approval comes at what Israel considers an “opportune time.”
While the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights is illegal under international law, during his first term, from 2017 to 2021, US President-elect Donald Trump made the United States the first country in the world to officially recognize Israeli sovereignty over the area.
Trump will resume office on January 20 after winning the US presidential election in November.
“Netanyahu is taking advantage of this moment to announce more settlement activities in order to entrench that occupation and make it permanent,” Odeh said. “Very similar to what he is doing in the occupied West Bank: land grabs, settlements, permanent occupation.”
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s office said he had discussed the situation in Syria during a phone call with Trump on Saturday. He also discussed efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
Despite Israel launching hundreds of attacks on Syrian sites since opposition groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) overthrew Al-Assad and moved to create a transitional government, Netanyahu said: “We have no interest “in entering into conflict with Syria.”
He said the strikes were aimed at “thwarting potential threats from Syria and preventing the takeover of terrorist elements near our border.”
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia was among the first to condemn Israel’s new plan to increase the number of settlers, while accusing Israeli leaders of trying to sabotage Syria’s nascent transition.
