Israel to send 250,000 settlers to occupied Golan

By Abdel Rauf Arnaut</p> <p><br></p> <p>JERUSALEM (AA) – The Israeli government hopes to settle some 250,000 Israelis in the occupied Syrian Golan heights over the next 30 years, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority (IBA) reported on Monday.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The report comes one week after U.S. President Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation recognizing the Golan Heights as “Israeli territory”.</p> <p><br></p> <p>According to the IBA, the Israeli plan also includes construction of two new Jewish-only settlements in the Golan, along with thousands of new settlement units and a raft of planned transport and tourism projects in the region.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The population of the Golan Heights currently stands at some 50,000, including 22,000 Israeli settlers, according to Israeli figures.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Israel had long pushed Washington to recognize its claim over the strategic plateau, which it seized from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, but previous U.S. administrations had refrained from doing so.