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The move comes days after rebel groups toppled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, weeks before Donald Trump is re-elected as US president.
The government of Israel has approved a plan to increase the number of illegal settlers occupied the Golan Heightsdays after seizing more Syrian territory following the overthrow of Syrian 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 decided to impose Israeli law on the territory, in an effective annexation.
The plan does not refer to the Syrian land portion seized by Israel following the fall 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 overlooking 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 about 31,000 Israeli settlers spread across dozens of illegal settlements in the Golan Heights. They live alongside minority groups, including the Druze, who mainly identify as Syrian.
“Strengthening the Golan is strengthening the State of Israel, and it is especially important at this time,” Netanyahu said. “We’re going to continue to hold it, make it flourish and settle there.”
Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said the approval comes at what Israel sees as an “opportune moment”.
While Israel’s 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 world to officially recognize Israeli sovereignty over the area.
Trump will return to office on January 20 after winning the US presidential election in November.
“Netanyahu is using this moment to announce more settlement activities in order to strengthen this occupation and make it permanent,” Odeh said. “Just as it is doing in the occupied West Bank: land grabs, settlements, permanent occupation.”
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s office said he had discussed it situation in Syria during a phone call with Trump on Saturday. He also spoke about efforts to reach a cease-fire agreement in Gaza.
Despite Israel launching hundreds of strikes on Syrian sites since opposition groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted al-Assad and moved to create a transitional government, Netanyahu said: “We have no interest in a conflict with Syria.”
He said the strikes were to “frustrate potential threats from Syria and prevent terrorist elements from taking hold 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 seeking to sabotage Syria’s fledgling transition.
