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MEVO HAMA, Golan Heights , Dec 26 (AP) \u2014 Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday the country intends to double the amount of settlers living in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights with a multimillion-dollar plan meant to further consolidate Israel\u2019s hold on the territory it captured from Syria more than five decades ago.<\/p>\n
Bennett said the new investment in the region was prompted by the Trump administration\u2019s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the swath of land and by the Biden administration\u2019s indication that it will not soon challenge that decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our moment. This is the moment of the Golan Heights,\u201d Bennett said at a special Cabinet meeting in the Golan Heights. \u201cAfter long and static years in terms of the scope of settlement, our goal today is to double settlement in the Golan Heights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Entrenching Israeli control over the territory would complicate any future attempt to forge peace with Syria, which claims the Golan Heights.<\/p>\n
Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed the territory, promoting settlement and agriculture there as well as creating a thriving local tourism industry. The U.S. was the first country to recognize Israel\u2019s sovereignty over the Golan, which the rest of the international community regards as Israeli-occupied.<\/p>\n
Bennett said the war in Syria made the idea of Israeli control of the territory more acceptable to its international allies, adding that the alternative would be much worse.<\/p>\n
Israel has long argued that the strategically important area has, for all practical purposes, been fully integrated into Israel since it was captured from Syria – and that control of the strategic plateau is needed as protection from Iran and its allies in Syria.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of Israelis live in the Golan Heights, which is also home to a number of formerly Syrian Druze villages, some of which oppose Israeli control.<\/p>\n
Shortly after making his remarks, Bennett\u2019s office said he was notified that his daughter tested positive for the coronavirus, prompting the Israeli leader to leave the Cabinet meeting and head into self-isolation at home.<\/p>\n
Bennett\u2019s office said he had tested negative in a rapid test taken before the meeting and that Bennett\u2019s daughter, 14, was vaccinated.<\/p>\n
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MEVO HAMA, Golan Heights , Dec 26 (AP) \u2014 Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday the country intends to double the amount of settlers living in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights with a multimillion-dollar plan meant to further consolidate Israel\u2019s hold on the territory it captured from Syria more than five decades ago. Bennett said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-180388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}