More than 13,000 new homes should be built within five years in the Syrian territory annexed by Israel.
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Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced Sunday 26 December the adoption by his Government of an unprecedented Golan Flat Development Plan, up to 1 billion Shekels (about 280 million euros. ) For the occasion, a special ministers council has been organized in the small kibbutz of Mevo Hama, 450 inhabitants and a breathtaking view of Lake Tiberias. Almost all the political trends of this heterogeneous coalition, from left to right, were represented. Only Arab ministers lacked the call.
It’s been just forty years since Israel unilaterally – and therefore illegally in the eyes of the international community – annexed the Syrian territory that he had occupied since the end of the six-day war in 1967. The Security Council of the UN estimated in its resolution 497 of December 1981 that the annexation was “null and void and without the legal effect on the international level”. According to Mr. Bennett, a unique combination of factors led at this time “historic”: the recognition in 2019 of Israeli sovereignty on the Golan by Donald Trump, then President of the United States, and “the fact that the administration of Joe Biden clarified that there was no change in this policy “; The ten years of civil war in Syria, who dechedribilized any notion of return from the territory to the Assad government.
The government plan focuses on implementation. “The goal … is to double the number of residents [Israeli] on the Golan plateau, thus add 23,000 residents [Jews],” summarizes the government release. With this in mind, it is committed to building in the five years, 7,300 housing units in existing colonies, including the administrative capital, Qatzrin, and 6,000 in two new villages. These new homes will be constructed according to a dedicated and accelerated building permit system. Nearly 90 million euros will also be invested in local infrastructure and economic development (especially in tourism and new technologies).
“Everything will change”
All part of the population is forgotten. “We only talk about Jewish populations,” regrets without surprise Wael Tarabieh, from the Al-Marsad Center of Human Rights in Golan. He is part of the Syrian Druzes community who remained after 1967. They are about 25,000 today, massed in four villages in the north-west of the territory. Most refuse to abandon their Syrian identity: only 15% of them made the choice to take Israeli nationality.
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