Israel OKs 5-year plan to develop illegal settlements in Golan Height

TEL AVIV

Israeli soldiers stand on the fence with the buffer zone that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria, on 9 December 2024 (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

Israel has approved a five-year plan worth about $334 million to develop illegal settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Israeli media reported on April 16.

The plan, covering the years 2026 to 2030, allocates approximately 1 billion shekels ($334 million) to strengthen infrastructure and promote Israeli population growth in the occupied territory, The Times of Israel news portal said.

Israeli officials said the initiative aims to transform the settlement of Katzrin into “Golan’s first city,” according to cabinet minister Ze’ev Elkin.

The move followed a meeting earlier this week between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and local officials, including Katzrin Local Council head Yehuda Dua and Golan Regional Council head Uri Kellner.

According to the report, the Directorate of Tnufa for the North, in coordination with local authorities, will oversee implementation of the plan.

“We will strengthen academia, research, and the University of Kiryat Shmona with a branch in Katzrin, a faculty, and a veterinary hospital,” Dua said.

The directorate plans to bring 3,000 new Israeli families to Katzrin and the Golan Heights by the end of the decade, the report added.

Under international law, the Golan Heights are recognized as Syrian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and settlement expansion there is considered illegal.

Israel seized a swath of southern Syria along the border with the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights shortly after Bashar al-Assad was ousted by rebels in 2024.

The capture of the buffer zone, a roughly 400-square-kilometer (155-square-mile) demilitarized area in Syrian territory, has sparked condemnation, with critics accusing Israel of violating a 1974 ceasefire and exploiting the chaos in Syria in the wake of Assad’s ouster to make a land grab.